NYC Veterans Day Parade Steps Off Wednesday at 12:30 on Fifth Avenue

Wednesday's city holiday has a timetable, and the producer has now published it. The New York City Veterans Day Parade — the nation's largest commemoration of service, produced by the United War Veterans Council every year since 1986 — steps off from Fifth Avenue at 26th Street on Wednesday, November 11, at 12:30 p.m., marching north up Fifth Avenue with participants from every service branch: thousands of veterans, military members, service organizations and youth cadets, with marching bands, floats, motorcycles and vintage vehicles.

The day begins before the first unit moves. At 10:55 a.m., the annual wreath-laying ceremony takes place in Madison Square Park at the Eternal Light Flagstaff, the city's central Veterans Day monument, with wreaths presented by veteran representatives, public officials, foreign allies and senior military leaders. The parade itself was first held in 1919, to commemorate the armistice that ended World War I one year earlier — at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month — and this year's edition carries an added weight: it marks the 250th birthday of the United States.

Two Navy veterans lead it. The Grand Marshal is Sunita 'Suni' L. Williams, the retired Navy captain and NASA astronaut, and the honorary marshal — serving in support of the Grand Marshal — is Vicki Bello, a U.S. Navy veteran who manages community and veterans programs for the Theatre Development Fund. Watching is free and needs no ticket; the practical advice is the city's usual parade advice — come by subway, expect Fifth Avenue and the streets around Madison Square Park to be given over to the parade through the afternoon, and check the producer's spectator page on the day, because the exact street closures are set by the NYPD closer to the event and this desk will publish them when they are posted, not before.