Parade Balloons Fly High With Helium

With December in full swing, you’ll likely watch a parade celebrating the holidays and the New Year. One parade element you can’t miss is the large inflated helium balloon characters floating down the street with their handlers. Learn more about national and local parades featuring spectacular character balloons.

Parade Helium Balloons

One of the most famous parades featuring character balloons is the May’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Before character balloons fly high in the sky and awe the crowd, they must be inflated in advance. The towering character balloons are inflated the day before over the course of 7 hours at the Museum of Natural History. The public has the opportunity to watch the process, as over 25 parade balloons are filled with helium and take shape.

In 1958 when there was a US helium shortage, the May’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons were filled with air and hoisted into the air with rigs. Nowadays with an ample supply of helium, parade balloons are larger and more majestic. The estimate is that more than 300,000 cubic feet of helium was needed this year. This is enough helium to lift multiple tons of weight. After the parade is over, there are recent efforts to reclaim the helium from the balloons so it can be reused.

Locally the recent 85th annual Los Angeles Hollywood Christmas Parade featured 22 large parade balloons including Garfield, Gumby and The Cat in the Hat in a 3.2 mile parade. As you’d expect, it takes a very large amount of helium to keep these large balloons in the sky. These balloons require an army of local volunteers and organizations to wrangle the balloons as they make their way through the streets. The event is a local favorite for everyone to come out and watch celebrities walk in the parade alongside cheerful bands and mesmerizing floats.

Conclusion

Parade helium balloons are definitely a spectacle and would not be the same without helium. When your business needs helium, Air Source Industries has you covered. We deliver helium for your business’ industrial and commercial needs with our 99.9% on time delivery. Contact us to get started. Our gas experts are available at (562) 426-4017 or get a quote online.