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Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Wiki
97 PARADES AND COUNTING!
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in: 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Parade Trivia

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2020 Changes and Filming

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Macys-Thanksgiving-Day-Parade-2020

The West Indian American Carnival Association pre-tapes a performance outside of Macy's on November 25th, 2020.

Due to restrictions put in place by the city of New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 94th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was filmed over a course of several days, and cut its usual task force down by over 88%, (originally anticipated to be 60%, then 75%) with participants dropping from over 10,000 to only 960. Numerous other restrictions were later put in place by both Macy's and the city of New York.

Macy's Parade 2020 Restrictions[]

Initial Discussion[]

Planning for the reimagined 2020 Macy's Parade began in March of that year, shortly after the pandemic shut down much of the country. The parade planners at Macy’s and NBC had to rip up the carefully calibrated script and come up with an entirely new blueprint, one that evolved as new questions surfaced day after day. Plans of a shortened Parade route were discussed, allowing for some movement along the streets of Manhattan. However, it was feared that it would draw unwanted crowds, and was scrapped.

“What I knew about Thanksgiving Day a month ago is different from what I know now,” said Susan Tercero, former executive producer of the Parade. “How do you plan something in June that’s going to happen in November when you have no idea where the country is going to be at then?”

The parade planners toyed with the idea of sending out film crews to capture the marching bands on their home turf, but that idea was dropped because it would involve a lot of cross-country travel, and in many cases, the young band members would have been learning remotely, away from school for several months, and unable to practice in person.

Initial Changes[]

The first series of changes were discretely announced in August of 2020, when all college and high school marching bands originally scheduled to appear in the 2020 Parade were deferred to make appearances in the 2021 Parade.[1]

Several days later, on August 10th, the Parade's website was updated to display a message regrading that year's procession. The message revealed that the Parade team was planning on holding the Parade in a similar fashion to the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks, which were held over a course of five days in remote locations.

A short list of several safety protocols were later released on Spirit of America Productions' official website.[2] The first known list of safety protocols for the 2020 Parade included:

  • Participant and colleague wellness checks performed at all pre-Parade events and on Thanksgiving Day.
  • A significantly scaled back number of total Parade participants, anticipated to be at least 60%.
  • Limiting participation to adults only on the Parade route.
  • The implementation of a number of social distancing measures, wherever possible, inclusive of providing and mandating face coverings for all participants, staff and ticketed guests.
  • Deferring performances by selected regional marching bands to next year and working to add locally based entertainment.

Official Announcement[]

On September 14th, an official statement from Macy's and New York City revealed the plans for the 2020 Parade. Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, cleared Macy's to hold the parade with alterations to allow social distancing, including a shortened parade route (constituting a single city block), balloons anchored by motor vehicles instead of carried by hand, virtual segments, a limit on the number of marchers, and a ban on marching bands. In accordance with state COVID-19 restrictions, no spectators would be allowed. The regulations revealed included, but were not limited to:

  • Reducing the overall number of participants by approximately 75%, and splitting the remaining participants over two days
  • All participants will be appropriately socially distanced during performances and be required to wear face coverings and additional personal protective equipment depending on their role
  • Shifting to a television-broadcast-only production with staging for Parade elements focused solely in/ around the Herald Square area of Midtown Manhattan
  • The traditional 2.5-mile Parade route will not be utilized this year
  • No participant in the Parade will be under 18 years of age
  • Previously selected regional High School and College Marching Bands performances will be deferred to the 2021 Macy’s Parade, with locally based professional marching and musical ensembles taking musical duties in the lineup
  • Macy’s traditional Giant Balloon Inflation public event on Wednesday will not take place
  • Macy’s signature giant character balloons will be flown without the traditional 80-100 handlers and instead employ an innovative, specially rigged anchor vehicle framework of five specialty vehicles tested and approved by the NYCDOT and NYPD.

Lineup Changes[]

In response to rising COVID-19 cases in New York City in November of 2020, stricter restrictions were put in place for the Parade. including the following:

Filming[]

Filming for the 2020 Parade took place between Tuesday, November 24th and Thursday, November 26th. The Parade "route" spanned only once city block along 34th Street. Balloons were inflated on 6th Avenue, and deflated just past 34th Street and 7th Avenue, Floats were assembled just before the 34th Street/6th Avenue intersection and were dismantled on 7th Avenue. Listed below are the units that made live appearances, sorted into the date that they were filmed.

Tuesday, November 24th[]

Wednesday, November 25th[]

Thursday, November 26th[]

References[]

  1. ↑ https://www.unionbands.com/macys/
  2. ↑ https://spiritofamericaproductions.com/coronavirus/
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