On the morning of the Rose Parade®, walking through the darkness is part of the adventure.
Along Pasadena’s Colorado Boulevard, mini-communities have sprung up, over the past 24 hours.
Overnighters camp out in sleeping bags and blankets, between the grandstands. The scent of roasted sausages fills the air, courtesy of early-morning street vendors. People huddle around small braziers. A line grows outside an establishment open for breakfast at 6:00 am.
Two visitors are sound asleep in fleece-lined bags, oblivious to it all.
The first sunrise of the New Year happens just before 7:00 am.
Beyond the barricades of Orange Grove and Colorado, ticketholders line up. The goal: a photograph with the Rose Parade® emblem that will appear first, in the parade.
A short distance away, one of Tournament of Roses®’ 935 White Suiters holds a red frame. Visitors step behind it, posing for a photo with the grandstands in the background.
The clock is ticking.
“I couldn’t get it,” says a woman in a laughing Southern lilt. “They said if we all don’t take our seats, they can’t have (the) parade.”
But she doesn’t seem to mind not getting a picture with the rose. The clock reads 7:45 am.
Three behind-the-scenes stars of the show–Tournament of Roses® float mechanics–wave at the crowd. The audience applauds. The grandstands continue filling.
And the countdown continues.
7:58. 7:59…
Click. 8:00 am, Pacific time, on New Year’s Day in Pasadena.
The celebration begins
And another chapter opens, in the Rose Parade®’s 130-year history.
Dancers and band members move into place for the opening spectacular.
Ten-time Grammy award winner and 2019 Rose Parade® Grand Marshal Chaka Khan headlines.
Cheers follow the performance, featuring Chaka Khan, her grandsons Jett and Josh Khan-Corley, Wilson Middle School Drum Corps, HTE Dance & Spirit Group, Temecula Dance Company and Kaiser Catamount Pride Band and Color Guard.
Over Colorado Boulevard, the B-2 Spirit sails majestically into the morning.
And the 130th Rose Parade®, themed “The Melody Of Life”, is in progress!
No post, or posts, can possibly do justice to what follows. But here are a few of the highlights of the next ninety minutes.
“Spectacular” is an understatement
The opening float entry, American Honda’s “Celebration of Dreams”, is actually a series of floats. Before a “birthday cake” celebrating Honda’s 60th anniversary, come five satellite floats.
The “birthday cake” main float features 60 members of HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) marching bands, as the “candles”. Tournament of Roses® estimates that more than 58,000 flowers make up this particular entry!
The first band of the day–Alabama State University’s “Mighty Marching Hornets”–marches proudly by. (Their dancers, the “Stingettes”, have appeared on the MTV Music Awards, and been voted “Best HBCU Dance Line”!)
They sound every bit as amazing as they look, in this, their first Rose Parade® appearance.
The first equestrian unit of the day, is the last remaining mounted color guard in the United States Marines.
Riding wild palomino mustangs, the United States Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard maintains the traditions of the past. Their mounts are adopted from the Bureau of Land Management’s “Adopt a Horse” program.
Audience members are rising to their feet as the unit approaches.
They remain standing.
Immediately following the Mounted Color Guard is the United States Marine Corps West Coast Composite Band. They’re actually a combined band: with members from three different Marine bands, they perform together once yearly: for the Rose Parade®.
Many of these band members are veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. All are fully combat-trained.
Applause greets their rendition of “The Marines’ Hymn” as they march into the first morning of 2019.
And much, much more is coming, as “The Melody of Life” continues.