Louisiana’s run with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade is over. What happens to the 60-foot gator?

Louisiana knocked it out of the park in its Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debut in 2021, bringing a 60-foot alligator float — the longest one rolling — that stopped at one point to let singer Jon Batiste step off the float to perform live with dancers on the street.

The response to “Celebration Gator,” measured by hits on social media and Louisiana tourism sites, “went through the roof,” said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, head of the state’s Office of Tourism.

The gator had a good run in 2022 and 2023, too.

Over the three years that the gator crawled down the streets of New York — its legs moved as it went — it reached 3 billion people worldwide and generated a publicity value of $24 million, according to the state tourism office. 

The monster-sized gator, though, won’t be appearing in the Macy’s parade this year, Nungesser said. The state didn’t renew its contract with parade organizers. 

Louisiana would perhaps need to come up with a new float idea or build a different “gator” should the Louisiana Office of Tourism rejoin the parade in the future. It might also be more expensive process now, Nungesser said. 

So what will happen to Celebration Gator, as the float was dubbed? 

“I don’t know. It’s Macy’s,” Nungesser said. “They could scrap it.”

Once Macy’s approves a float design, the presenters of the float pay Macy’s to build it, he said. 

The idea for the giant alligator float came during the early days of the pandemic, Nungesser said. 

The tourism staff was on a video conference and came up with the idea of using big-name parades to attract visitors to Louisiana again. 

Nungesser said that Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was perfect. 

“It comes right before Mardi Gras,” he said. 

As it does with all the floats, Macy’s sent its own basic float ideas to Louisiana, Nungesser said.

Instead, the tourism office sent back the idea for the gator.

“We needed a wow factor,” he said.

“We went back and forth with Macy’s for three months,” Nungesser said. “I told them it was going to be the longest float to ever crawl down the streets of New York.”

The Louisiana Office of Tourism will now focus on the Rose Bowl Parade coming up on New Year’s Day 2025 in Pasadena, California. Louisiana made its debut in that parade in 2021, the same year it entered New York City. 

“We want to concentrate on where we can get more bang for our buck,” Nungesser said. 

In the first three years that Louisiana had a float in the Rose Bowl Parade, it reached 4.3 billion people worldwide and generated a publicity value of $39.7 million, the tourism office said. 

Last year’s float, the “Celebration Riverboat,” was built by volunteers at a cost of $350,000 and featured performers Amanda Shaw, Sean Ardoin and James Burton. 

The theme for the 2025 Rose Bowl Parade will be “Best Night Ever.”

Louisiana’s float — still to be designed — will be about “Saturday night in Louisiana,” Nungesser said.

“It will be about Tiger Stadium and all the festivals and fairs we have throughout the state,” he said.