THE ROSE PARADE BEGINS AT 8AM PST ON JANUARY 1 IN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, USA.
For millions of people around the world, the Rose Parade is an iconic New Year’s Day tradition.
The Rose Parade travels 5 ½ miles along Colorado Blvd., featuring four main types of entries: floral-covered floats, equestrian units, marching bands, and Tournament Entries. Many of these participants have long-standing ties to the Tournament of Roses, helping to keep the event’s traditions alive.
The earliest Tournament of Roses, drew 3,000 spectators and showcased beautiful, flower-covered, horse-drawn carriages. More than a century later, the parade floats are a marvel of state of the art technology, all tucked away beneath flowers and other all-natural materials.
THEME & GRAND MARSHAL
2025 Rose Parade Theme – “BEST DAY EVER!”
On January 18, newly installed President Ed Morales announced the 2025 Pasadena Tournament of Roses theme, “Best Day Ever!”
“The 2025 theme celebrates life’s best moments – those unexpected times that bring a smile, warm our hearts and fill us with joy. From a once-in-a-lifetime experience to the simplest pleasures, each is indelibly etched into our memory,” explained Morales. “Together, we celebrate where we’ve been and what we look forward to. It’s about family, friends, and community and what we have to celebrate – and to be thankful for. On New Year’s Day and throughout the year, let’s celebrate the times that make up our Best Day Ever!”
2025 Grand Marshal – BILLIE JEAN KING
On October 7, The Pasadena Tournament of Roses proudly announced Billie Jean King, sports icon and champion for equality as the Grand Marshal of the 2025 Rose Parade presented by Honda. Tournament of Roses President Ed Morales announced on the front steps of the iconic Tournament House as King made a grand entrance to Elton John’s hit song “Philadelphia Freedom”—a song famously written in her honor. King’s selection as Grand Marshal ties seamlessly into this year’s parade theme: “Best Day Ever!”, celebrating life’s best moments.
HOW IT ALL HAPPENS
Nothing can be done officially about constructing the floats until the Parade Theme has been announced. So, until that time, clean up and repair work is done on various chassis in preparation for re-using them from the prior year’s Parade.
Once the Parade Theme has been announced, the various float decorators are required to submit 8” X 10” pencil sketch theme drafts to Tournament Headquarters for approval and acceptance. A total of 120 sketches are approved. Once a pencil sketch is approved, they are protected from being copied by other decorators. These concepts are now eligible to be sold to any of the float sponsors who may be interested and who have earlier applied for entrance into the parade.
Once the sketches have been accepted by the Tournament of Roses and float sponsors, professional designers are hired to produce the Art Renderings for the individual decorators. Decorators, in the meantime, are busy re-constructing and engineering the float chassis for the proposed design.
Early in March the actual float construction begins with the chassis and the metal construction, welding, forming, etc. The first testing in accordance with Float Construction requirements is the “Bench Check.” This test is a stationary test to check mechanical items (running gear, brakes, etc.). Immediately following the first street test approval, the decora- tor is given the right to begin cocooning or covering the float and to paint and prepare for the second street test. Ap- proximately six weeks after the first street test, the animation and sound components are tested. Floats with more complicated animation and design are given longer (3 to 4 months) between testing.
Concurrently in March, all flower orders are placed with the growers both in and outside the United States. In Septem- ber, decorators will update their flower orders to insure timely deliveries.
During the month of November, while construction progress is continuing, decorators have what they call “Dry Satur- days.” On these days the helpers will cut and store all of the “dry” (natural coverings) materials that are to be used on the various floats -- bark seeds, palm fronds, etc. This is also a time for decorators to train their many assistant decora- tors who will be in charge of individual floats.
On the first Saturday in December, the longer-lasting flowers (mums, etc.) begin to arrive. These flowers are categorized and stored in water in the flower tents. Other flowers that have not opened will have to be put in heated rooms to force them open (such as the gladiola and iris).
The day after Christmas, begins what is commonly called “Hell Week.” At this time the decorators will have acquired a multitude of workers (adults and children age 13 and older), many from neighboring schools, churches, and community organizations, who volunteer to work for some “fund raising” project in which their group is involved.
Each float has an assigned florist who works closely with those covering the float with flowers to ensure the correct flowers, seeds, petals, bark, etc. are placed where they should be placed.
A supervisor is assigned to oversee the activities of the workers on that specific float. These supervisors make sure that the correct scaffolding is used and that the workers are safe. Forty workers are assigned to a float per shift, and, in most cases, there are two 8-hour shifts per day until the float is completed.
The first flowers to be added to the floats are the chrysanthemums because they are the hardiest and also last the long- est. Other long lasting items such as bark and seed, are also glued in place at this time.
Carnations are the next flowers to be added to the floats. Then, one or two days before the parade, the vialed flowers, such as roses and orchids) are added. Wherever vialed flowers are to be added, areas of thick free-floating foam have been blown on the float. Then these vials are punched into the Styrofoam sheets matching the color of the painted co- cooning.
There are three different times for judging the floats by the guest judges who have been selected by the Float Judging Committee. These judges have been selected both nationally and/or internationally and are invited to participate.
All floats must be completely finished by the second round of judging.
The first judging is held two days prior to the parade. At that time, the judges are able to get their first look at the floats in progress, to see how they fit the parade theme, to observe the flowers being added, to note the animation to be used, etc.
The second judging is done the day before the parade. During this time, the judges can expect to see the completed float, including all of the float riders in costume. The animation is expected to be working at this time, however the sound is not necessary until the float is actually moving in the parade.
All floats must be out of the barns by 9:00pm on New Year’s Eve. They are then escorted to the parade staging area by the Pasadena Police Department, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and the Tournament of Roses Float Construction Committee.
The last judging is in the early morning hours (between 3 and 6am) before the parade. This time is given to the judges for a last minute look at details before they cast their votes.
When this is completed, the judges return to Tournament Headquarters for the final tally.
Once the votes have been counted, the first to be informed of the results is the Tournament Entries Committee so that they have time to put the various Award Banners in correct order to insert them into the parade just ahead of the float that has won the award. It is then that the media is given the information of the award winning floats.
At parade time, immediately in front of Tournament Headquarters, as the floats go by, the Award Banners, carried by Boy and Girl Scouts are inserted into the parade and the parade continues down Colorado Boulevard.
