Over 100 thousand people lined the bay side streets of Downtown San Diego for the 25th annual Holiday Bowl Parade. The parade is billed as America’s Largest Balloon Parade featuring more giant helium-filled character balloons than any parade in the country.

The theme of this year’s parade was “Bay Dreamin” and features 15 marching bands, 21 specialty units, seven floats and 25 enormous balloons. Some of the balloons that could be seen flying high downtown included Mighty Mouse, Woody, a T-Rex, Horatio the Bee from Bumble Bee Seafoods, A Very Hungry Caterpillar, a Blue Whale, and Octonauts, among others.  

The parade also featured marching bands from the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin, the two universities that will be facing off in the Holiday Bowl football game at Qualcomm Stadium. 

The Grand Marshall for this years “Bay Dreamin” Holiday Bowl Parade is Bruce Binkowski who is the  retiring executive director of the Holiday Bowl.