Quite a
Crowd
3 .5 million spectators
watch the parade on
the streets of New York
City. That’s enough
people to fill 64
YANKEE STADIUMS!John Piper holds a three-inch
plastic person. The team uses
this for scale to see how big
a six-foot person would look
next to the full-size balloon.A balloon might weigh around 600 pounds until it’s
filled with helium. Then it weighs -330 pounds!3 After the models are finished, fabric for the full-size
balloon is cut, sewn, and sealed together. The balloon is then
painted while inflated so that the fabric is stretched tight.2 An artist paints a
clay model of last year’s
new Goku balloon. Goku
is a character from the
Dragon Ball anime series.
The full-size balloon is
five stories high!1 Balloon artists make two clay models
for each balloon. They paint one model
white. They mark where to attach lines for
people to hold and where to put inflation
and deflation ports. The other model is
painted with the exact colors that will be
used on the actual balloon.
A Colorful
Downpour
10 ,000 pounds of
confetti rains down on
parade-goers. That’s as
heavy as THREE CARS!