Rehearsals in full swing ahead of 6abc Dunkin 100th Thanksgiving Day Parade

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The countdown is on. We are just days away from the historic 6abc Dunkin' 100th Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Performers eager and putting the finishing touches on their big numbers for the monumental celebration.

Weeks of practice all culminating into one spectacular day to remember.

"We got some nice things in store," said staging director Robert Mackey.

On Sunday, he was at the helm at the Aramark Student Training Recreation Center at Temple University reminding us why some of these performances mean so much to so many.

"It brings communities together that normally would not dance together all into one location, all wearing the same costumes, doing the same choreography to the same music and it gives a great sense of unity to all the organizations to come and do that together," he said.

Each smile telling of that pride. One of the largest belonging to 82-year-old Faye Edelson who will be tap dancing down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway with the group fanTAPulous.

"It's very very exciting," she said.

For some, it's a full-circle celebration.

"Yeah, this is so awesome, I participated in the parade as an opening number, singer, and dancer a few years and this 100th parade is actually my first year brining my own studio to the parade, so for me it's really exciting!,=" said Eryka Waller from the Quinn Center for Performing Arts.

Among some of the talented artists, a group of professional dancers who say there is plenty of reason to tune in and watch.

"They are going above and beyond this year like no other. There's a lot of big surprises that we just heard today, and we can't even wait," said Gabriel Andrew Reyes.