O'FALLON, Ill. — What do Snoopy, Cher and the O'Fallon Township High School Marching Band have in common? They will all be in New York City for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year.
The O'Fallon Township High School Marching Panthers from O'Fallon, Illinois, will be one of nine marching bands in the parade this year, and one of just five high school bands to make the cut.
It has been a banner year for the Marching Panthers. Over the weekend, they placed second overall in the Bands of America Super Regional at The Dome at America's Center with a score of 90.075. It was the highest score the school had ever earned at the competition and earned them the Class AAAA regional title.
This year’s parade, the 97th edition of the annual event, will feature 16 giant character balloons, 26 floats, 32 novelty and heritage inflatables, 12 marching bands, 700 clowns and eight performance groups.
For the first time in its long history, the holiday tradition will begin at 8:30 a.m. ET, half an hour earlier than previous years, kicked off by multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-winner Jon Batiste.
Viewers in other parts of the country can watch the parade on NBC at 8:30 a.m. local time.
The parade airs on NBC and streams on Peacock. Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker from “Today” will host and a Spanish language simulcast on Telemundo will be hosted by Carlos Adyan and Andrea Meza.
To watch 5 On Your Side broadcasts or reports 24/7, 5 On Your Side is always streaming on 5+. Download for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV or the Apple TV app store.