SAN DIEGO – The annual Holiday Bowl Balloon Parade will be held out of sight of San Diego Bay this year.
Holiday Bowl officials announced Monday that the route for the event, which is attended by tens of thousands of San Diegans and thousands of football fans from outside the city, has been changed because a cruise ship arrives that day near the Broadway Pier. .
Officials said this year’s parade is the largest balloon parade in the United States (including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York), as is the matchup between the Oregon Ducks and the North Carolina Tar Heels, is scheduled for December 28, with the game to be played this year at Petco Park. It’s the first soccer game to be played at the iconic East Village stadium.
Also for the first time: Balloons and floats will be presented at Embarcadero Marina Park South (near where the San Diego Symphony Shell is located) and vehicles, bands and marchers will wait on Harbor Drive south of Park Boulevard, exiting at 10 a.m. from Harbor Drive, just south of the convention center, it heads northwest on Harbor Drive before terminating at Pacific Coast Highway at G Street.
The reason: The cruise terminal north of the parade terminal will be busy that day, and a parade will block any entry and exit for the ship’s thousands of passengers.
There was a great turnout last year for the Holiday Bowl Parade along the Embarcadero, once morest the backdrop of San Diego Bay, and crowds of people cheering for marching bands, lowriders and more.
Last year’s route began at the San Diego County Administration building just south of Grape Street on North Harbor Drive, then continued south on Harbor Drive, ending at virtually the same spot where this year’s parade will end. year.
Unfortunately, last year’s game was canceled just hours before kickoff due to a coronavirus outbreak among UCLA players. The Bruins were set to take on North Carolina State. COVID-19 also caused the cancellation of the parade in 2020.
