READY SANTA ONE: MACY’S TAKES THE THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE TO THE METAVERSE

It’s not truly Thanksgiving until the aroma of something wonderful is wafting in from the kitchen and the familiar sights and sounds of The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade are playing across your virtual reality headset. Wait. What? That’s right, Macy’s is taking its legendary holiday spectacular to the Metaverse for a second time (although the headset is actually optional).

The brand-new Parade experience will give fans the power to select the first-ever NFT (Non-Fungible Token) Macy’s Parade balloon. In celebration of its 96th march, the Macy’s Parade can be experienced as a virtual event in the metaverse and will include galleries from five NFT projects and the opportunity for fans to vote for their favorite creators, helping one design come to life as a real-world balloon in next year’s Macy’s Parade.

“As we countdown to the 96th Macy’s Parade, we are excited to bring this spectacle once again to the web3 virtual landscape with a fun experience that empowers our fans, collectors, and our highly engaged Discord community,” said Will Coss, executive producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “Our genesis collection of Parade NFTs last year was so successful that we wanted to give our digital community the opportunity to select a native NFT design to be transformed into a real-world Macy’s Parade balloon, while also creating an opportunity to raise critical funds for our partner Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.”

The metaverse experience will be powered by the OnCyber metaverse and available to fans and collectors beginning on Thursday, November 24, at 9 a.m. EST. The virtual Parade can be accessed at macys.com/NFT and is fully accessible on desktop and mobile without the need for a crypto wallet, complicated log in, or VR headset. The metaverse Parade will feature the flight of iconic Macy’s Parade balloons from the nine-decade run of the holiday march. These balloon creations were first featured as collectible NFTs made available last year in celebration of the Macy’s Parade’s 95th Anniversary.

The five galleries will feature NFT collections from Boss Beauties, Cool Cats, gmoney, SupDucks, and VeeFriends. Fans can vote for their favorite from Thursday, November 24th at 9 a.m. EST through Sunday, December 4th at 11:59 p.m. EST. The first 100,000 fans who vote will receive a free Macy’s digital collectible. No purchase or claim to an NFT collectible is necessary to vote, and official voting rules will be available at macys.com/NFT beginning November 24.

Collectors will have the opportunity to mint a virtual gallery pass to receive an OnCyber NFT gallery space, which will be airdropped on December 5th. Minting a virtual gallery pass will cost $50, with 100 percent of the purchase price benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA). By employing NFT technology in this way, Macy’s is helping create a brighter future for young people by helping fuel life-changing mentoring experiences for the long term.

For those of us with a more old-fashioned — er — traditional mindset, the 96th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, live from New York City, still airs on NBC on Thursday, November 24th, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in all time zones, and can be streamed on Peacock. Visit macys.com/parade for regular updates, including behind-the-scenes content, interactive historical information, Parade 101 educational activities, and more.