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Event
Information:
The
parade starts at 9:05 am on Woodward
Avenue and Mack and ends at Woodward
Avenue and Congress in downtown Detroit
on Thursday, November 22. Thousands of
parade viewers will be watching as the
Parade makes its way through the town.
The Grand Marshals for this year's
parade are Congressman John D Dingell
and Debbie Dingell.
America's
Thanksgiving Parade, is an annual parade
held on Thanksgiving Day in downtown Detroit,
Michigan. The tradition started in the city
in 1924 by the J.L. Hudson Company department
store. It shares the title for the second-oldest
Thanksgiving parade in the United States
with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
in New York City, and is four years younger
than the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade
in Philadelphia.
The idea came
from Hudson’s display director Charles Wendel
after the success of the Eaton's Santa Claus
Parade in Toronto. In addition to the usual
floats and bands, Wendel obtained large
papier-mâché heads similar to those he saw
during a recent trip to Europe. The heads
are made in Viareggio, Italy and remain
a fixture of the parade to the present.
The parade
was suspended in 1943 and 1944 due to material
shortages caused by World War II, but Hudson’s
resumed the event in 1945 and continued
sponsorship of the parade until 1979 when
the costs became burdensome. It turned the
parade over to the Detroit Renaissance Foundation
who produced it for four years. In 1983,
Detroit Renaissance turned the parade over
to the newly-created Michigan Thanksgiving
Parade Foundation and the event became known
as The Michigan Thanksgiving Parade.
Since 2006,
the parade has taken place on Woodward Avenue,
starting near Woodward and Mack Avenues,
and ending at Congress Street. This is the
route the first parade followed in 1924.
The parade travels toward downtown from
Mack Avenue, after crossing over I-75 it
enters Foxtown, near Detroit's Fox Theatre,
the Hockeytown Cafe, and Comerica Park.
From Foxtown, the parade passes through
Grand Circus Park then into the business
district where it then enters the TV coverage
area near Grand River and Gratiot Avenues.
The route had been displaced from this route
for several years during the construction
of Campus Martius Park and realignment of
Woodward Avenue and other adjacent streets.
The construction was completed in 2004.
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