McAllen Holiday Parade arrives with special guests and new floats

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The McAllen Holiday Parade is finally here to bring in the holiday spirit.

The most anticipated parade of the year is taking place at 6 p.m. at the McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium, located at 2001 N. Bicentennial Blvd.

Road Closures

High traffic and road closures are to be expected to occur during this event.

City officials remind residents that continued lane and road closures along Bicentennial Blvd. and 23rd St., from La Vista Ave. to Pecan Blvd. are necessary for the safety of the participants.

Road closures will begin on Friday and continue in phases through Saturday around the stadium.

The city asks residents for patience while traveling along Bicentennial Blvd.

At 9 a.m. Friday the outer lanes along Bicentennial Blvd., from La Vista Avenue to Pecan Blvd., will be closed. At 6 p.m. there will be a full closure of Bicentennial Blvd. between the same limits.

Additional closures along Bicentennial Blvd. and 23rd St. will continue in phases throughout the day Saturday leading up to the parade start time.

This section of Bicentennial Blvd. will reopen at 1 p.m. Sunday.

What to expect

Over 265,000 people are expected to attend this year's Holiday Parade.

The parade will have an opening extravaganza and fireworks show at 5 p.m., followed by a performance from the University of Rio Grande Valley band and a ballon vuelta spinoff.

Special guests include Rich and Payton from the JohnJay and Rich show, Mateo Lopez, Dallas Cowboy defense end DeMarcus Lawrence, Luis Alejandro, Vicente Matias Vuoso, Oscar Ivan Promo Nueva and Francisco Torres.

Popular attractions include the famous Spongebob SquarePants and Hello Kitty balloon.

The hosts for this year's show are American actor and TV host, Mario Lopez and popular Mexican Televenola, Argentine-Puerto Rican actor and model, Julian Gil.

Behind the scenes

The McAllen Holiday Parade is becoming one of the top 10 holiday parades in the United States and with that comes a large dedicated group of volunteers to keep the parade steady.

Joe Vera, Assistant City Manager with the City of McAllen said this year they have 2,700 to 3,000 volunteers.

According to a previous ValleyCentral article, the holiday parade is touted as the largest helium parade in Texas.

Vera said there are about 700 to 800 balloon handles and depending on the size of the balloon some may need 30 to 40 handlers while others take as few as six balloon handlers.

For safety precautions, city officials have approximately 300 law enforcement officers from different agencies to ensure things run smoothly during the parade.

This year the parade has 12 new sponsors and floats the attendees can expect to see and over 95% of previous sponsors are returning this year.

You can watch the parade on Saturday at 5 p.m. on KGBT 4.1, at 6 p.m. on NBC 23 and a live stream coverage on ValleyCentral.com.