DETROIT – Final preparations are underway for America’s Thanksgiving Parade presented by Gardner White, ahead of the parade’s 99th appearance on Woodward Avenue on Thursday, Nov. 27.
“I think that what we’ve done is we keep trying to make the floats bigger and better, and I think we’ve created some amazing animation,” said Tony Michaels, the president and CEO of The Parade Company.
About 29 floats will be featured in the parade, including eight new designs by Delta Dental of Michigan, DTE Foundation, Ford Motor Company, Goodman Acker, Huntington Bank, Pet Supplies Plus, Rocket, and The Skillman Foundation.
Workers test out the floats the night before the parade to make sure all the mechanics are in working order.
“Tonight we do our test run on some of the lift-up mechanisms or things like audio or video kind of tests,” said Alex Fedirko, The Parade Company assistant art director. “Then tomorrow morning we get all of our ‘tip-ups’, the things that go 25, 30 feet up in the air, we get those all up and running, and we get them all ready for the parade to kick off.”
This year, Mother Nature created an added challenge as crews worked to repair some minor damage caused by Wednesday’s (Nov. 26) heavy winds.
“We’re just trying to do the finishing touches, things we might’ve missed or things Mother Nature might have done or maybe the route, the travel coming down here, and just trying to make everything look really good,” Fedirko said.
The parade steps off at 8:45 a.m. Thursday on Woodward Avenue and Kirby Street, and ends at Woodward Avenue and Congress Street in downtown Detroit.
This year’s parade grand marshals are Mayor Mike Duggan and longtime Local 4 anchor Devin Scillian.
Click here for the lineup of performances and celebrity appearances.
“We get to work with amazing artists, we get to work with amazing staff, all the volunteers that come out, the community, everyone kind of coming together to make this amazing event happen,” Fedirko said.
Click here for parking information. There is also free metered street parking across Detroit on Thanksgiving Day.
Coverage begins at 6 a.m. on WDIV-TV or streaming on Local 4+. Streaming is available outside the Detroit market.
Our parade preview is from 8-9 a.m., and the parade broadcast runs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.