Local news coverage of marching bands in the 2024 Macy's Parade for Thanksgiving

A early happy Thanksgiving to my readers! I begin my celebration of the long holiday weekend, which extends until Giving Tuesday with this year's version of Local news coverage of marching bands in the Macy's Parade for Thanksgiving, one of the most popular posts during the past three years.

Since there are no Michigan or California bands performing tomorrow, I'm presenting the bands in alphabetical order according to Macy's website, beginning with WTHR reporting Avon High School marching band prepares to perform on one of nation's biggest stages.

From Avon to New York City, the Avon High School Marching Band is set to represent Indiana on one of the nation's largest stages.

Since being selected to be featured in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the band has been hard at work to fine-tune every step of their performance set for the morning of Thanksgiving.

Students had one of their final rehearsals Thursday, Nov. 21 before traveling to New York City next week.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is the second major event Avon has performed at this month. WTHR also reported Avon High School wins Bands of America Grand National Championships

One of the country's biggest marching band competitions returned to the heart of the Circle City.

The Bands of America Grand National Championships brought over 110 bands to Lucas Oil Stadium for three days of performances, an expo and more events.

The preliminary round of the competition kicked off Thursday morning, Nov. 14, at 7 a.m. and ran through 10:45 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17.

This year, Avon High School was crowned the winner! They won by just over a point against Carmel High School.

Congratulations, Avon! It's hard enough for a band to perform at either BOA Grand Nationals or the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in a year and Avon will do both in a couple of weeks!

Follow over the jump for the rest of the marching bands in tomorrow's parades as covered by their local TV stations.

WIS News 10 previewed the next band in WATCH: USC Marching Band prepares for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.


Go Gamecocks!

Next, WJHL covered ETSU Marching Bucs head to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.


I couldn't resist this video because it mentioned the Rose Parade. Gabe Tipton should thank his lucky stars he gets to march in both the Rose Parade and Macy's Parade.

NBC DFW reported Flower Mound marching band to represent Texas at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade last week.

In just one week, and a few hours, 44 million Americans will tune in to NBC to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When they do, they'll see North Texas's own Flower Mound High School marching band - the only one representing the Lone Star State. NBC 5's Allie Spillyards has the story.

I mentioned that it's difficult for a band to compete at BOA Grand Nationals and the Macy's Parade in the same year. Flower Mound did not attend Grand Nationals, but they earned a score only one-tenth behind Avon's at the San Antonio Super Regional a week earlier, winning the contest. They decided to go to Macy's instead of Indianapolis. I don't blame them.

I couldn't find any local news coverage of the next band, so watch Lake Hamilton high-school marching band, a video of their Arkansas State Band and Orchestra Association championships performance.


The opening set gave me strong Troopers vibes and I got what I expected.

No one station can cover all the possible stories for the Macy’s Great American Marching Band, so I accepted the judgment of the YouTube algorithm by selecting 2024 Macy's All American Marching Band Story, University High School (WV) Band copy of WBOY News 12's segment.


The University High School Marching Band should look familiar, as I featured them in Marching music for the Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia Presidential Primaries. Also, good luck!

I found plenty of local news coverage of the next band and selected 11 Alive's Jonesboro High School marching band to perform at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as my favorite.

The band has had a year packed full of significant news and performances.

It has been and will continue to be a busy and eventful year for the Cardinals!

I didn't find local news coverage of the NYPD Band last year or the year before, so I skipped them. I didn't find any this year, either, but I'm not passing them over today, showing Ronald McDonald,NYPD Marching Band,Paw Patrol Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (11/23/2023) instead.


I don't know if the NYPD Band appreciated being behind Ronald McDonald, but they work well as the musical act before Chase of Paw Patrol. Ronald McDonald is returning, but this year's Paw Patrol balloon is Marshall the fire dog. I bet the FDNY is having a good laugh.

While Macy's doesn't list them last, the next band will perform last, as WTRF reported West Virginia University marching band to lead Santa in New York Thanksgiving Day Parade.


That's quite the honor!

For the penultimate band on Macy's list, Dakota News Now (KDLT) reported Lincoln Marching Band ready for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The Macy’s Parade garners millions of viewers nationwide each year and a local high school gets to showcase its stuff in front of a national audience.

Good luck!

The final band on the list is one I showed in both Two drum corps and some of my favorite bands marching in the New Year for 2018 and Part one of marching music for Super Tuesday on Marching Music Day, The UMass Marching Band Goes To Macy's from UMass Amherst.

The Power and Class of New England is heading to New York for Thanksgiving! Although this isn't the first time that the Minuteman Marching Band has played the Macy's Day Parade, it's the biggest crowd that these students have ever performed before.

Most collegiate marching bands in the U.S. audition their members. UMass does not. "As famous as we are, and as accomplished, we're kind of unique in that we don't audition anyone," says band director Tim Anderson. "If you want to be in the UMass Band, you're in the UMass Band. We want you here."

The retinue of UMass student performers will include drummers, tuba players, flutists, dancers, flag twirlers, and more. As they worked hard to memorize and perfect their routines, they took a moment to talk to UMass about how much the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade means to them.

Should there still be meaningful primary elections and I'm still blogging in four years, I hope to remember to include UMass Amherst's Macy's Day Parade performance in the relevant Super Tuesday post.

By the way, notice how many of these segments are from local NBC affiliates. As I first wrote in CNN defends Big Bird after Ted Cruz calls one of the character's tweets 'Propaganda,' a pandemic update, "my readers should keep that relationship in mind when watching the clip above. It's not just news value that's driving it."

Stay tuned as I remain in full holiday mode through Tuesday.