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I recently moved back to the UWS after living in another state for a decade. I’ve got family coming for the holiday and thought I go by the balloon event the day before the parade. Somebody told me that it’s hard to get onto that street now, that you need some kind of pass, and that it’s during the daytime and not at night anymore. Is that true? Do I need to get passes to bring kids? When my son was little we’re just walk down the street in the middle of the night and it was a piece of cake.
Hi- you don’t need a pass. You can go anytime between 3-10 p.m on Wednesday. As it gets later the lines tend to get longer, but def worth the wait (especially since the weather will be so nice!)
Alas, the days are long gone when this was pretty much a neighborhood event. Ever-increasing media coverage has ruined it. No ticket required, but you must now enter a cattle-corral line at 79th and Columbus. And it is very, very crowded. At 10:30pm, the streets will be blocked off by MTA buses and police cars. I too remember (in younger days) of spilling out of a bar at midnight and taking one last look at Snoopy before bedtime. Sigh … no longer.
Thanks for taking a moment to respond. How sad. I have such fond memories… I don’t recall any tourists, just neighborhood folks. Sometimes it was just something you walked past on your way home, sometimes I’d see young couples or in my case… I would bring my drowsy little boy to see the big balloons get inflated in person the night before. So sad that it’s become and “event” with hoards of people.
“hoards of people”
How many boards would the mongols hoard if the mongol hordes got bored?
(You meant ‘hordes’)
Tourists bring in a lot of $$$.
Incomplete list? No-parking signs for Thursday just went up on 86th between CPW and Columbus.
Additions: “No Parking” signs on south side of 71st between CPW & Columbus Ave
So pleasant (in memory only) when you could just come upon it by happenstance as you were leaving a neighborhood restaurant. This isn’t the PARADE. Why did inflation of balloons have to become an organized event with crowds and metal gates?