Don’t miss the pageantry and excitement of the WRAL-TV Raleigh Christmas Parade, presented by Shop Local Raleigh. Live television coverage begins Saturday, November 21st at 10am from downtown Raleigh.
Over 65,000 people will line the street for this spectacular show, in addition to thousands more watching at home. This event annually ranks as one of the largest parades on the East Coast.
Now in its 71st year, the parade will be hosted by WRAL-TV morning news personalities Bill Leslie and Renee Chou, with Brian Shrader serving as street-side reporter.
This year’s parade will feature 115 entries, including marching bands, festive floats, giant balloons, animals, entertainers, specialty vehicles, plus special holiday surprises.
The parade route is 1.2 miles long, starting at the corner of Hillsborough and St. Mary’s Street. The parade travels east on Hillsborough Street, turns south at the Capitol on Salisbury Street, east on Morgan and then makes a final turn down Fayetteville Street.
This is the 42nd consecutive year that the event will be broadcast live by WRAL-TV. The parade will also be streamed live on WRAL.com and viewers across North Carolina can watch the parade on UNC-EX. Replays will be broadcast Saturdays at noon during December (excluding Dec. 26) on WRAL2 , plus a special holiday presentation on WRAL-TV at 4pm on Christmas Day.
Twitter users can follow along behind the scenes of the broadcast as WRAL’s on-air hosts and production team tweet from their vantage points during the set up and throughout live coverage. Viewers and parade watchers are encouraged to join in! Share your photos and parade experiences on twitter using #RaleighParade, and even tweet with Santa himself during the parade!
Santa won’t stop answering questions after the parade is over. Search “Ask Santa” on WRAL.com, and Santa will answer questions from local children Nov. 21st through Dec. 23.
After the parade, go to WRAL.com and search the word “parade” to view photos from this year and from past parades. You can also watch the entire parade or just the individual groups that you want to see, on-demand, any time, by visiting: http://www.wral.com/WRAL-Raleigh-Christmas-Parade/8528121/
The WRAL-TV Raleigh Christmas Parade is presented by Shop Local Raleigh and sponsored by United Health Care and Wake Med.
