Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular

As many of you are probably aware from my various posts to social media, we are getting close to my favorite event of the year, the Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular! For those of you who are unaware, this is an event that happens every year the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and features marching bands, dance troupes, floats that are on flatbeds pulled by trucks, and giant helium balloons of animals, objects, and famous characters from books, TV shows, and movies. In this post, I will be sharing all the information that I can about the parade in the past and this year in hopes that it will encourage all of you reading to go to it.

This event first started in 1993, and I remember seeing that it used to be on the day after Thanksgiving, and that they didn’t have balloons at first. In fact, I recently found an article that said that it began as a Christmas-themed event with the purpose of getting Santa Claus to the Stamford Town Center, while also including a petting zoo and what the article described as “holiday magic.” I think that moving the date of the parade was a smart decision, as more people are likely to go to it if it’s on the weekend before Thanksgiving, rather than the day after when people are away. The same article that talked about the early years of the parade also said that they first started having balloons there in 1997. I know that this change was one of the smartest things they could have done, as that has since become the most famous part of the parade.

While I obviously haven’t been going to the parade since it first started, as I was born in 1998, I have been going there for almost my entire life, as I first went there in 2001. I have pictures of all of the balloons from the years that I have gone, and I have found some information regarding older parades on the internet. 

Some things that are worthy of note include the fact that in the early 2000s, it was called the Cablevision Parade Spectacular, which also resulted in it being broadcast on TV for a short time. They also had a unique assortment of balloons at this time according to an upload of a broadcast from 2000, including Franklin the Turtle, who was a massive 70 feet tall, making him the tallest balloon the parade has ever had, and a Garfield balloon that was dressed as a baseball player and had a separate baseball balloon in front of him, which is not something they have done since with any other balloon. Another interesting fact has to do with new balloons each year. In recent years, the number of new balloons they added to the parade was two, three, or four. In 2002, a year where I remember seeing that there were 21 balloons, they had a total of 15 new balloons, which I find incredible, as that means that almost every balloon that year was new. From what I can remember of pictures on the internet and pictures that I have here, they continued this strategy of having a ton of new balloons each year, while still including old favorites from previous years. I also found that the Inflation Party the day before used to go from 4:00-8:00 as opposed to the current 3:00-6:00. It wasn’t until UBS became the title sponsor that they changed their strategy to having two, three, or four new balloons each year and bringing back almost all the balloons that were there the previous year, which resulted in them having 25 balloons two years in a row, which is also the most balloons the parade has ever had. 

In 2009, the parade experienced its biggest change up to that point, as they reduced the number of balloons to 17, resulting in a lot of balloons from the previous year not returning. As much as I love this event, I think that reducing the number of balloons was a smart decision as it allows for a quicker parade and lets them lay out the balloons more easily at the Inflation Party. While they didn’t have 17 balloons in following years, they have consistently kept it close to that number, with the last two years having 15 balloons and this year having that many as well.

I am now going to share with you everything that you can expect at this year’s parade. I will be starting with the marching bands. They will be having several high school marching bands from the area, including Westhill High School, which is in Stamford, Brentwood High School in Long Island, Trumbull High School, Uniondale High School in Long Island, and the John F. Kennedy Marching Eagles from Waterbury. Some other marching bands they will have this year include the Fairfield County Pipes & Drums, the NYPD Emerald Society Pipe & Drum Band, the Butler Golden Tornado Marching Band from Butler, Ohio, and making their parade debut this year, the Wyandanch High School Marching Band from Long Island. 

The next feature in the parade this year that I will be sharing is the marching units and dance troupes. There are a few marching units that are consistently part of the parade, and only one has been confirmed as being part of the parade this year. The marching unit that has been confirmed is the Second Company Governor’s Horse Guard, and the other marching units that have not been confirmed but I think will still be part of it are Mayor Caroline Simmons and Dignitaries and the Westhill High School JROTC. The dance troupes that are going to be in the parade this year are all from the area, and some of them are from Stamford. The dance troupes from Stamford are Center Stage Dance Studio, Hoop Girls, which my cousin’s daughter is also part of, Ladies of Finesse Dance Company, and Locust Performing Arts Center. The other dance troupes this year are City Center Dance from White Plains, Dance on the DL from Darien, Nova Jazz in Bedford Hills, and the Norwalk Conservatory of Arts.

The next feature in the parade this year that I will be sharing is the floats. For the last two years, they have consistently had four different types of floats that they are going to have again this year. The first float is the Stamford Teacher of the Year float, which this year is honoring Carolyn Tschinkel, a kindergarten teacher at Stillmeadow Elementary School. The second float is one that comes at the end of the parade and features Santa, which this year is called “Holiday Magic.” The third float is for the local radio station Star 99.9, which will have its listeners that go to the parade make signs to show how much they love them. The fourth float is one that is for the special guest of the year. In 2022, it was Cirque-Tacular acrobats, in 2023, it was Kidz Bop, and this year, it’s going to be legendary comedian and daredevil Bello Nock on a sway pole.

Now comes the part that I’m sure you have all been waiting for, the balloons that they are going to have this year. As I already said, there are going to be 15 balloons this year. I will now be going over all of them in the order in which they are listed on the website, which is alphabetical and not the order they will be in the actual parade. 

The first balloon that is listed is one that has never been in the parade before, a Butterfly. I found a picture of it on the website of one of the balloon companies, and I thought it looked beautiful.

The next balloon listed is one that has been a regular at the parade since they first had him, preschool show character Daniel Tiger.

The next balloon listed is one that has been a part of the parade for years and one that I’m sure you’re all familiar with, Elmo.

The next balloon listed is one that has been in the parade a few times that I also think is one of the cutest balloons there, Gingerbread Boy.

The next balloon listed is one that has frequently been part of the parade since his introduction and another one that I’m sure you’re all familiar with, Kung Fu Panda. 

The next balloon listed is one that has been a part of the parade since his introduction and another one that I’m sure you all know, Mr. Potato Head.

The next balloon listed is one that has been part of the parade twice already, an Octopus.

The next balloon listed is one that has frequently been part of the parade, is typically sponsored by the Stamford garbage company, and is another one that I’m sure you’re familiar with, Oscar the Grouch.

The next balloon listed is one of the most unique balloons they have ever had, a Peace Sign, which looks like something from the movie “Yellow Submarine.”

The next balloon listed is one that has quickly become popular since its recent introduction, as he is one of the most popular holiday characters ever, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The next balloon listed is one that the parade loves to have, and it’s also one that I’m sure you’re all familiar with, Scooby-Doo.

The next balloon listed is one that has been in the parade every year since its introduction, and it’s another one that I know you’re all familiar with, Shrek. 

The next balloon listed is another one that has been in the parade every year since its introduction, a Snowman.

The next balloon listed is one that will be making its debut this year, UConn Husky, which makes sense because they have a campus in Downtown Stamford and have sponsored at the parade before, and I saw the balloon on social media, and I thought it looked very cool. 

The last balloon listed is one that they have had a lot ever since its introduction, and it’s another one that I’m sure you’re all familiar with, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

But it’s not just the parade that you should go to see. The day before, you should also check out the Inflation Party. This event is on November 23 from 3:00-6:00, and will feature performances from Bello Nock, Locust Performing Arts Center, costumed characters, and an appearance from Santa. The best part of this event is seeing the balloons for the first time, trying to guess who they are before they are inflated, and watching them get inflated. While they are filled with helium during the parade, and they have used helium to inflate them at previous Inflation Parties, last year they used leaf blowers to inflate the balloons at that time, which resulted in them getting inflated very quickly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they did it again this year.

Overall, this is an event with a great history, and it’s one that you should all go to. It is on Sunday November 24 at 12:00, so head on over to Stamford and go see this amazing event!