by Dot Cannon
“It’s fun seeing the floats really take shape, (in) the last 48 hours,” said Tournament of Roses® Decorating Places chair Jason Melillo.
For Pasadena’s 130th Rose Parade®, those 48 hours had arrived.
At the Rosemont pavilion, on Sunday morning, December 30th, the line of visitors seemed endless.
“Decorating Places, presented by Giti Tire” would be open to the public from 11 that morning. And everyone there seemed anxious to get a sneak peek at some of the 40 floats that would wow the crowds during the 2019 Rose Parade®.
Onsite were both the vehicles which would carry the dignitaries in the parade on Tuesday, and eight floats. Seven of them were built by AES.
The eighth was independently built, or “self-built”. The Cal Poly Universities float is the only student-built float in the Rose Parade®.
“Crunch time” versus dedication
And what all the floats had in common? Volunteers were working against the clock, to finish decorating them. On Monday evening, all floats would leave the float facility for the parade.
Jason explained that the dry decoration goes on the floats happens earlier in the month. Then, he said, the last 72 to 48 hours are the time to add the fresh flowers.
“That’s really beautiful, to see how they just evolve in that last time frame,” he said.
Rose Parade® floats have set records for both height and length, in the past. In 2017, the Lucy Pet Products float made the Guinness Book of World Records, for longest single-chassis float, at 126 feet long. And the 2004 parade featured the Disneyland Resort® float, “A Sudden Drop in Pitch”, with a tower nearly 100 feet tall.
The secret to the magic
So, how can these incredibly detailed floats, given their size, be finished on time?
Volunteers, Jason explained.
“The last 72 hours, (we have) bodies and bodies of people, who are climbing all over these floats, almost like ants,…doing their different jobs. And it’s just amazing to watch.”
Jason said construction of the 2019 floats hadn’t presented any particular challenge. However, he had encountered a minor issue.
“On the Chipotle float, …there’s a tractor that has kind of a bright coloring to it,” he said. “They used kind of a crushed pepper, and I saw them putting that on the other day, and I walked through there and sneezed.
“So there’s a little bit of that…it’s very fragrant in there, but I don’t think (there have been) any real challenges.”
We didn’t hear any sneezes as we toured the facility. But we did hear the words, “beautiful” and “gorgeous” several times.
Inside “Decorating Places”
The China Airlines float, “Rhythms of Taiwan”, promises to be incredible. It’s going to have a statue of the modernized Taoist deity, the “Techno-Dancing Third Prince”, at the back, and feature a performance that combines a Taiwanese folk dance with modern pop rhythms!
As we toured the facility, one of Tournament of Roses®’ 935 White Suiters explained the decoration going on the Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Animation float, “How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World”. This float has been more than six months in the making, according to the Tournament of Roses®.
Organic materials and natural creativity
Keeping in mind that every inch of Rose Parade® floats must be covered with organic materials…
…the “bumps” are mushrooms, and orange lentils provide the orange color. Other “deco” materials include cranberry seed and Spanish moss from New Orleans!
Further along, we talked with a volunteer about the Blue Diamond Almonds float. This one’s themed, “The Best Almonds Make the Best Almond Milk”.
The “almond shells”, she said, are made with tree bark!
“You’re gluing wood to styrofoam. It’s very challenging,” she explained.
And near the Cal Poly Universities float, “Far Out Frequencies”, Cal Poly mom Monica Kauppinen told visitors that 91 percent of the deco materials on that float were California grown.
In addition, she said, all the characters on the float had names.
Monica, whose daughter Melitta is studying mechanical engineering at Cal Poly, said this particular “space alien” is named “Tubahead”, for obvious reasons. The two astronauts on the float are “Sally” and “Morgan”. Then, the three-eyed alien is “Ketchup”, while the flying one is “Lucy”, as in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
Meanwhile, Monica said, the table of volunteers working nearby was creating what amounts to the “bling” for the float. They were crafting both the letters for the float and “Cal Poly Rose Float” patches–one of which will be on the lead astronaut’s back.
The floats start their trek to the parade lineup at about 6 pm on Monday evening. Moving at a speed of 2.5 miles per hour, and given that the taller portions of the floats must retract for low wires and the 210 overpass, the journey takes a number of hours till they reach their destination.
And, on to South Pasadena
After “Decorating Places”, we also made a stop at the oldest “self-built” organization’s float barn. The South Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association will be entering its 85 float in the 2019 Rose Parade®, according to a volunteer!
“Three Little Birds” was inspired by the Bob Marley song of the same title. Its deco materials will include 20,000 roses!
The 2019 Rose Parade® floats have already wowed visitors–two days before their official appearance in the parade!
Imagine what they’ll look like when they make their appearance on Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Day.