El Paso's 2020 Thanksgiving Day Parade Going Crowdless, TV-Only

This year you won't have to get up at an ungodly hour on Thanksgiving morning to stake out a spot along the Thanksgiving Day parade route, because, for the first time in its existence, the Sun Bowl Parade will not have spectators.

The Sun Bowl Association announced it will continue the 84-year tradition of the Thanksgiving Day Sun Bowl Parade despite the pandemic by presenting it as a prerecorded, virtual event.

“In order to keep each other safe and healthy, the parade will only be available to watch on TV or on other electronic devices,” the organization stated on a social media post.

There will still be floats, and marching bands, and maybe even over-sized Shriners driving under-sized cars, but they won't be traveling down Montana Ave. on Thanksgiving morning and there won’t be hundreds of thousands of El Pasoans lined up along both sides of the street to watch any of it.

Instead, its participants and performances will be pre-taped and broadcast Thanksgiving morning on the local NBC affiliate, and streamed the following day online at www.sunbowl.org.

The theme for the 2020 parade is “Fan Favorites,” and will feature units from past parades.

The 84th Annual Sun Bowl Parade is sponsored once again by Oscar Leeser’s Hyundai of El Paso. "This year, with COVID-19, most parades across the country have been cancelled. I’m making sure the Sun Bowl Parade tradition continues…so our kids and families will get to enjoy it in safety," Leeser said in a statement.

The TV-only parade will air Nov. 26 at 10 a.m.