On Saturday November 15, 2011 Macy's held its 85th Balloon Fest in Bergen County, NJ at the NY Giants Stadium (Now called The Metlife Stadium). Every year they bring over a few balloons that are seen in the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
This year they had 4 balloons....
Sonic the Hedgehog
Julius The Monkey
The Afflack Duck
(which looks like any regular duck.)
and of course the Macy's Stars
(SEE above Picture)
Sonic the hedgehog and Julius the Monkey Balloon were both balloons that balloon handler's handle by strings and walk during the parade. Afflack the Duck, however is a balloon that is motorized by a small vehicle inside. At first I just thought he was one of those lawn balloons for decoration for the day, so you can think how surprised I was that he was part of the parade.
Balloon Handlers had on Red Sweatshirts:
and of course there was tv stations covering the event:
and
The objective of the Balloon fest is to test the balloons BEFORE Thanksgiving to train the balloon handlers how to handle the balloons. I also guess they do Balloon checks to see if there are any leaks in the balloons themselves.
The Macy's Day Balloons are constructed from models:
You can see all the action in my video i posted on youtube here:
That is so cool! Would be fun to go to! Thanks for showing the pics! I love parades so seeing them set up before the big show and testing it all out must be fun!! hehe!!
85th Balloon Fest
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