Crews at Navy Pier had finished setting up two of the most popular floats from Saturday night's parade by 9 a.m. Both the Water Tower float, which was the lead vehicle with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and the John Hancock Observatory Winter Wonderland float with Santa are on display Sunday at the pier's Gateway Park for visitors to come by and check out.
Also, the stars of the Disney Channel's Lemonade Mouth were scheduled to attend a meet-and-greet with fans at Navy Pier from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
One of the stars participating in Sunday's event is Bridgit Mendler, who was in the ABC7 studio Saturday morning. Her co-stars Adam Hicks and Hayley Kiyoko were also expected to be there.
Only fans who have wristbands will get to meet the stars. Those wristbands were set to be handed out at 10 a.m. Sunday. A line to get wristbands had already begun to form earlier Sunday.
Meanwhile, retailers in the area say they are ready for the crowds and the holiday shopping spree to begin."The traffic on the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival weekend is about two-thirds of Black Friday, and we know how big Black Friday is. So, that's a very exciting statistic for us to know that we have that many people that are down here on the avenues shopping," said John Chikow of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association.
For those who missed the original broadcast of the parade, you can watch the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival again Sunday, December 4 at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, December 10 at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 18 at 1:30 p.m.
You can also watch coverage on-demand here at abc7chicago.com.
(Note: Disney is the parent company of ABC7 Chicago.)
