I was leaving town for Thanksgiving, and thought it'd be fun to stroll calmly by the Balloons and…read moreFloats the night before the parade. Nope! Nothing peaceful about it. Cool? Yes. Chaos? That too. My thinking was arriving closer to end time to avoid the masses. The float inflation viewing started at 1pm & ended at 6pm. By arriving at 530 I'd let all the families and die hards pass through beforehand. Turns out the rest of NY had the same idea. The line was 10 people wide and wrapped around a couple city blocks. I kept walking, and walking, .......and walking, and finally found the end of the line. A worker in a parade vest started yelling "If you're not at 72nd St by 6, you aren't guaranteed to get in!". If it worked out great. If not, no big deal. Vendors along the way were selling pretzels, hot dogs and light up toys. Not a boring wait. There were wooden barriers lining the sidewalk, but about half way through, a huge crowd moved the saw horse and cut all the patient people who did the nice thing and started at the end. I was not happy! Said so out loud, too. Luckily their bad karma didn't affect my getting in at 555pm. There were more corrals to wind through as we paralleled the park. Then I saw Minnie Mouse! She was pretty. Other balloons followed like Bluey, Sponge Bob, & Spider-Man. Most of the characters were face down hugging the ground and covered in netting, but how awesome is this free BTS experience! I stayed farthest away from the balloons in the hopes I could breeze through faster. Kinda worked. Took some ok pics. Finished the first row. I was feeling done when a worker said there's more on 81st St. I'm not a quitter. I headed north! Saw Pikachu, Snoopy, Smokey, The Pillsbury doughboy and a couple unknowns. The thick crowds and shuffling along the path made me start to feel a bit claustrophobic. I asked the closest police officer how to get out, and he said you can't. You have to keep following the trail passed the floats of the next block, and then you can peel away without finishing the last block of floats. It was overwhelming, but really neat. Would I do it again? No. Am I glad I did it once, absolutely. A simple way to fix this frustrating congestion situation, would be to have a free online ticket with a timed entrance. Staff wouldn't need a person manning the tickets, but it would give attendees a designated block of time to show up. Something to consider for future events.

Macy's Thanksgiving Balloon Inflation is an Upper West Side tradition to me. The first time I…read moreattended I lived in a rooming house on West 74th Street owned by an order of Catholic Nuns. The director Sister Pius suggested I go to the balloon inflation the first year I moved to Manhattan 2002. The event definitely gets crowded. I had no idea what to expect. Sorry to say I wasn't taking photos of everything and posting on a social website. This year Beagle Scout Snoopy was in the balloon inflation. He is the one photo I got. On Thanksgiving I saw him in the parade on TV. If you are in the area you should at least experience this tradition once! Take lots of photos!!

I had a good time. Although I thought there would be more food stations, I was enjoying my time…read morewith good music, food and great vibes. I'm looking forward to next years event.

Wow. Made me feel stupid. I'll stand by the 1, but sure wish I'd been with Nicole C…read more Hubby wanted to give this event to me for my b'day. But I had to make the arrangements. This was in August. Buy this time many, many events were sold out. So I got sucked into buying the 4 day package. I guess that was stupid. It was over $1000 (add to the hotel/air). Night one was the women's night. Two, the b'day party. Three, burger night & four BBQ. These were all rooftop parties which were simply a mad house. All those volunteers! What a good job they did of politely corralling hundreds of people. But then the hordes were turned loose. Rude crowds is one complaint. Rude celebs is another. It's a double whammy. Where were the photos taken showing attendees with their fav chef? Certainly not where we were. We barely got a *glimpse* of Bobby, Ina, Giada, & Alex when they were on stage for 30 seconds. The only person we saw not under guard was Casey Webb ( I just looked him up. Who knows his name?!) Burger challenge night had GZ, Zimmern, Neil P. Harris & his hub as judges. They were roped off by about 20' with guards. Seriously. On top of that they didn't even look at the crowd -- not a smile, a wave. GZ grimaced. Funny, I actually liked these people before this. I "heard" Bobby/Ina signed books one night. Opposite each other in the same section of the roof. Well, guess what? That caused one major cluster -------! You ***could not*** get through the crowd. I "heard" Giada was in the mix for a time on top of that. All I wanted was to get to some wine. Which brings up another point of serious contention: wines were only available at the far end (BACK) of the pier. So I, the wine drinker, had to make the hike and fight the crowds to get what turned out to be a very expensive sip, considering what I spent to be there. (And I never talk about costs. Money's never in my forethoughts. That's how disappointed I am) So, my non drinker husband was kind enough to pretend to drink so I'd at least get two at a time while the crowds were swilling beer after beer and whiskey. But, oh it got worse. The charity wine purveyor refused to serve Chardonnay!! the last two nights. Of course that's what I drink. I don't have pix because of full hands and crowds. The lines were ridiculous, food scarce. Burger night was the best but started badly. We were in line for a taste of Cinton Hall when shoving and line cutting started. I asked someone what the hell was going on. Apparently Rachael Ray was spotted at the front of the line! People are crazy! They served 1/2 burgers & I scored a whole Shake Shack special burger. Yum. Hubby voted w/ the crowd for Cinton Hall. Another incident. I stepped up to a booth serving sunchokes. The server was asking me if I'd had them before, etc. when the "chef" working behind her looked up & I said, "I know you." I don't know if she'd been a contender on Top Chef or what but I recognized her. With no response I asked, "What's your name?" She just batted her false eyelashes at me and mewed, "Tara. . . " Fine, be coy. I just walked away. I just couldn't understand how all these people could have paid what I paid. BBQ night we sat down with a mother of two. Somehow it came out that her tkts had been comped by a chef she knew. Figures.

fun, free event annually in coney island to celebrate the summer! I highly recommend coming in…read moreadvance and trying to view the parade from the boardwalk side, which is less crowded. bring water as it's usually sweltering and the parade runs several hours long. once you're there, you're also right by the amusement parks and the carnival games are fun and plentiful. I also recommend packing a bathing suit so you can hit the beach after the parade :)

Good times and good vibes at the Mermaid Parade! Had a great time with great friends at the peak of…read moresummer in the city. It was a fun prequel to Pride weekend festivities.

As a freelance music journalist/photographer, I have had the honor of covering this festival for…read moreseveral years. It's one of the best put together and organized festivals I've ever been a part of. That says a lot when it's being held in a large population area (Commodore Barry Park in Brooklyn). The sound is top-quality, the vendors, bathrooms, workers, and volunteers have it together. Tons of food trucks. With this came the pleasure of bucketlist things like watching Grace Jones perform from the stage (stage right) with her mother, brother , and her mother's best friend and then hanging out with them in her tent afterwards. In addition, I was able to hang with my friends in Fishbone, Ice-T & Coco, QuestLove, Bad Brains, Suicidal Tendencies, Body Count, and many, many more. The park is large with spacious ground, enough to accommodate the thousands of folks in attendance at any given time. Truly an amazingly inclusive event to be asked to be a part of.

Compared to other festivals I've been to, AP is by far one of the most organized and spacious ones…read moreout the bunch. I went in 2018 (just the Saturday show) and it was a really decent time. The grounds were clean, there was some bench seating and I wasn't suffocating from the clouds of marijuana in the air. All I do is go to festivals in the summer so I'd urge anyone who hasn't been to AP in NY to check it out. P.S: Don't get the VIP band. It's a waste of money!

More like 3 1/2 stars. Because you have to stand behind one of the barricades to watch it pass for…read moreover 4 hours. That being said, it's a unique experience. We attended the 13th annual parade and festivals (2019) held in New York City. It starts around 21st street and goes down Broadway, then University Place, turning onto East 8th street which becomes Saint Marks Place. It ends in the Dance Fest after party at Tompkins Square Park. The parade includes some 10,000 dancers from over 150 organizations with 100 unique styles of dance. Groups come from New York but also New Jersey and Connecticut to promote their dance schools, clubs, performing arts programs, and national origins. We had staked out a good viewing spot on 8th street just after the parade would turn from University place. Luckily we were in the shade. We stood for over 4 hours as the different groups passed by. Many had banners featuring the name of their groups and had amps with their music to accompany their dances. A few were on trucks or parade floats. Most were walking and dancing the entire route. Amazing how they did both in heavy colorful costumes and very high heels, too. All sorts of dance were here -- from ballet to belly dancing; hip hop to traditional Chinese fan dances; Latin fusion to ballroom. Can you think of it? It was represented. Then there were some of the weird and wild with drag queens and campy dances. Exercise like dancers too -- from aerobics to jazz. And also there was a mix of ages -- from tiny kid dancers to elderly Asian umbrella dancers. All sorts of folk and ethnic dancers. A lot of Bolivian dancers with blaringly loud "hurt your ear drums" music. Contrasted with drum corps -- the all female group was great. If you're in town when this occurs, plan for disruptions in traffic and closed streets. And if you can't go (or stand) for the entire parade, at least carve out an hour to see this unique New York experience.

Today was the 13th Annual NY Dance Parade. It was on Broadway between 14 St and 21 Street in…read moreManhattan running downtown bound. There were lots of different dance schools, dance teams and other dancers represented. It also wasn't just New York Area groups because I did see one from North Carolina. Plenty of good music to dance along the sidelines.The cops let people cross Broadway to get to the other side during lulls in the parade,

The whole sherry shepherd show was amazing. First time going to a show of this magnitude and I…read moredefinitely enjoyed myself. Shanice the singer was one of the guest. Which was very nice. Very nice set. Felt like family

This was soo much fun, attending the show was like being at a fun party. When I went, Wendy had…read morefour guest hosts, who were great. They were holding it down for her, but I will definitely return to see Ms. Wendy herself. The show was energetic and the pre-show DJ, music and Marco the warm-up guy was so lively and excellent at getting the audience pumped up for the show. 'How you doin?'

This year's thanksgiving day parade is very cool especially because they have a Pop Mart cart! The…read morePop Mart cart has LABUBU, Mokoko, Dimoo, Skullpanda, and Peach Riot! It looks so cool! I was so ecstatic that they got Pop Mart in the parade and it is that popular to be in the parade! They also got a Minnie Mouse float, which is the same exact thing as last year! I saw Gabby and many more favorites Buzz Lightyear and Paw Patrol! Lil Jon was performing a throwback and Busta Rhymes look pretty cool performing. It's cool to see these old rappers perform. They got the Kpop Demon Hunters Cast performing the Golden song! A catchy tune that is very addicting! I can play it on repeat! Overall, it is pretty cool this year that they got more Asian sensation in the parade with the Pop Mart characters and K-pop Demon Hunters cast performing!

This was my first time attending and I was out there At…read moremandatory time of 5am! Can you believe the streets were already filling up at 5am with people. It was pouring and I mean torrential downpour but people came out and showed up. The floats were so beautiful. It was organized. Police everywhere and I felt safe. I was working bleacher which was right at Columbus circle so no issue getting to the train station. My advice : get there EARLY to get a decent view! I can't wait to return

The best dressed parade each year. It's fun it's colorful and I have a good time. Guess I'll have…read moreto find my photos. I didn't go this year. If you're in Manhattan on Easter Sunday go to the parade. It's a guaranteed good time with friendly people! Oh by the way wear your bonnet!

Not exactly a parade…read more But so worth experiencing at least once in your life. Maybe twice if you didn't participate hat wearing the first time. In about a five block stretch in front of St Patrick's Cathedral, the street is blocked off from car traffic. Everyone floods the street to mingle and take pictures of the many others that create their best or most elaborate "Easter Bonnet". Some rivaled the Queen's and matched the wearer's entire ensemble. Some sported bonnets of baskets, bunnies and flowers. Others went for as avant-garde as they could imagine. Especially the two that were "head over heels" for each other and fashioned hats made of high heels. As you mill, don't be shy. Compliment the ones you love. Ask for poses and snap some pictures. This is a happy crowd out enjoying the day.