Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Start Time, Performers List and More to Expect

The festive annual event celebrating its 98th year is not one you want to miss this Thanksgiving.

Macys star balloon during the 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November 2023 / John Lamparski/WireImage/Getty Images

It’s an exciting morning to be a city girl—or just someone who loves to enjoy festive televised events from the comfort of their home. Macy’s is hosting their annual Thanksgiving Day Parade today in Manhattan, NY, making for a fantastic viewing experience to share with your loved ones. Every year, we absolutely love checking out the fun balloons, wonderful performers and unforgettable floats that make us do a double take. Among the many awesome moments to look out for today are performances by fan favorites such as Idina Menzel and Kylie Minogue, all-new floats like the Wednesday’s Feast and more.

So let’s quit teasing you with what to look out for and get into all the details you need to know before tuning in. Of course, the Thanksgiving Day Parade begins early in the morning, so you want to make sure not to miss a minute of the event.

How to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The annual event begins live at 8:30 a.m. ET and will conclude at 12:00 p.m. ET. Hosted by NBC, the easiest way to watch the parade would be to turn to the broadcast channel at the start time, but don’t worry—you don’t necessarily need cable to watch. The parade will also stream live on NBC’s platform Peacock. You can also tune in to NBC through your choice of Live TV platforms, including but not limited to FuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, DIRECTV and Sling TV. For Black Friday, Peacock is now offering an awesome deal in which you can subscribe for either $19.99 for a whole year (a 75% discount) or $1.99 a month for six months.

If you aren’t subscribed to any of the aforementioned platforms to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, we’d highly recommend taking advantage of the Peacock deal. That’s seriously a steal!

The parade will also air in Spanish on Telemundo at the same time.

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TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker will return today to host the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade once more. The simulcast on Telemundo will be hosted by Carlos Adyan and Andrea Meza. As for the ribbon cutting to begin the event, the honor will go to GLOW actress Alison Brie, who stars in a new Macy’s holiday campaign. If you miss any of the parade on TV, there will be an encore showing on NBC at 2:00 p.m. ET this afternoon.

From Charli D’Amelio to T-Pain, the amazing performers

We can always count on the Thanksgiving Day Parade to provide us with fun, festive performances from some of the biggest names in music, and 2024 is no different. We list the full list of musical performers below, followed by the talented performance groups and marching bands to expect.

Performers

• Alex Warren
• Ariana Madix
• Bishop Briggs
• Charli D’Amelio
• Chlöe
• Coco Jones
• Cole Escola
• Dan + Shay
• Dasha
• Idina Menzel
• Jennifer Hudson
• Jimmy Fallon & The Roots
• Joey McIntyre
• Kylie Cantrall
• Kylie Minogue
• Lea Salonga
• Liza Colón-Zayas
• Loud Luxury
• Natti Natasha
• New York Liberty & Ellie the Elephant
• Rachel Platten
• Roman Mejia
• Sebastián Yatra
• The Temptations
• Tiler Peck
• T-Pain
• Walker Hayes
• The War and Treaty

Performance groups

• AUM Dance Creations
• Black Haus Creative
• BOSS Kids
• Cricus Vazquez
• Indigenous Enteprise
• Kilgore College Rangerettes
• LA Fuerza Dance Company
• Move I NYC I Young Professionals Ensemble
• Riverdance 30-The New Generation
• Spirit of America Cheer
• Spirit of America Dance Stars

Marching bands

• Avon Marching Black & Gold
• The Carolina Band of The University of South Carolina
• East Tennessee State University Marching Buccaneers
• Flower Mound High School Marching Band
• The Lake Hamilton High School Marching Band — The Power Band of Arkansas
• Macy’s Great American Marching Band
• The Majestic Marching Cardinals of Jonesboro High School
• New York City Police Department Marching Band
• The Pride of West Virginia — The Mountaineer Marching Band
• Sioux Falls Lincoln High School “Patriot” Marching Band
• University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band

In addition to the performers listed above, 28 clown crews will also be in attendance during the parade.

Floats and balloons

Audiences can expect to see 22 balloons this year, including brand-new additions in Disney’s Minnie Mouse, Extraordinary Noorah™& The Elf on the Shelf®, Gabby, Goku, Marshal from Paw Patrol and Spider-Man, along with seven awesome “balloonicles.” This year will introduce the following new balloonicles: Bluey’s Grannies Car, Cookie & Crouton, Go Bowling and the Lox & Java Trycaloon. We’ll get to enjoy seeing a whopping 34 floats, with favorites like 1-2-3 Sesame Street® and the Big Turkey Spectacular returning. New floats include Candy Cosmos, Dora’s Fantastical Rainforest, Magic Meets the Seas, Pasta Knight, SpongeBob SquarePants Garriage, Wednesday’s Feast and Wondrous World of Wildlife.

The parade will begin at West 77th Street & Central Park West in New York, NY, moving down to Columbus Circle, Central Park South & 6th Avenue and concluding at Macy’s Herald Square. With 2.5 miles of public viewing space to watch the parade, there are multiple spots you can stand to watch along in person. But, of course, we’d recommend arriving super early, as the parade is very popular and will get very crowded. If you’re planning on checking it out in person, read more on the route here.

There’s nothing quite like the holiday season, and what better way to celebrate than gathering for a festive, iconic event? From Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, we wish you a happy and safe Thanksgiving.