Big crowd this year at Detroit's Thanksgiving parade
Tens of thousands of spectators lined Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Thursday morning under clear skies and crisp-yet-not-chilly temperatures to catch in person the 96th running of America's Thanksgiving Parade.
The hospitable weather brought out the largest live crowd for the 3-mile parade since the COVID-19 pandemic, a year when spectators were urged to stay home. While the parade was back last year in its traditional format, a drizzle kept many away.
Downtown Detroit this year was especially bustling, with people here not only for the parade, but also the annual Turkey Trot road races and the Lions game at Ford Field against the Buffalo Bills.
Those watching America's Thanksgiving Parade Presented by Gardner White in person and on TV were treated to a show with 26 floats — nine of them new — along with multiple marching bands, dance teams, giant balloons, a large spectacle of papier-mache heads and more.
The parade lasted more than three hours from start to finish, when the last float delivered Santa Claus and his elf entourage downtown.
Many youngsters enjoyed an elevated view of the activity from the perch of their father's shoulders.
Michael Scamardella, of Ferndale, who came with his two young sons and his father, said it was a lot more pleasant watching the parade this year than last year, when the weather was cloudy and drizzling.
“We came last year, and there was probably a quarter of the people here," he said.
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While his family used to just watch the parade on TV, he said, they have started coming in person to experience the thrill and the energy of seeing it with the crowd.
Another dad, Andy Kah, of Kingsville, Ontario, was deep in the crowd of spectators with his daughter, who will soon turn 2.
For Kah, it was his first time at the Thanksgiving Day parade in more than 20 years, back when he was a youngster in the tow of his parents.
“It’s just me and my daughter right now — my wife’s working," Kah explained. "Not everyone can take the day off on the Canadian side.”
The co-grand marshals of this year's parade were University of Michigan "Fab Five" legend Jalen Rose and the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP. They traveled the route in two blue Ford Mustangs.
The parade's lead sponsor was Gardner White, which has picked up the role since former longtime sponsor Art Van Furniture experienced liquidation bankruptcy in 2020.
This year's lineup of giant balloons included a Transformer and Big Bird on a unicycle, and were crowd pleasers once again.
There was a moment of suspense near the end of the parade when the Kermit balloon, buffeted by light wind, bumped into tree branches at Campus Martius Park. But the balloon quickly and safely cleared the obstacles.
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"I thought Kermit was going to fall down on us for a moment!" Denise Lewis, of Detroit, said with a laugh.
Lewis watched the tail end of the parade with her kids. She said they try to catch at least a little of the parade in person every year.
"I wanted to come down just for the atmosphere," she said.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit's Thanksgiving Parade draws big crowd with comfy weather
