by Dot Cannon
Fiesta Parade Floats was bustling with preparations.
On Sunday afternoon, December 29, just a little over 48 hours remained before the floats made their journey. On New Year’s Eve, around six, they’d leave Fiesta’s Irwindale facility for their journey to the parade route. There, they’d line up for the 131st Rose Parade® .
And on Sunday, staff and volunteers were diligently working on the decoration process.
Fiesta is the top award-winning float builder in the history of the Rose Parade®. According to Project Manager Beverly Stansbury, in our earlier interview, they first created floats in 1988–for the 1989 parade.
Frequently, they’ve won the Sweepstakes Award: the top award among Tournament of Roses®’ twenty-four float honors. Floral design, floral presentation and entertainment value are the criteria.
In 2019, where their UPS float, “Books Keep Us On Our Toes”, was the winner.
For the 2020 parade, Fiesta has created 11 floats.
Their work incorporates humor, poignancy and beauty.
For example, the Underground Service Alert of Southern California (a/k/a DigAlert) “The Power of Safety FIRST” float features a careless cat…
…who DIDN’T call 811 before starting to dig a swimming pool!
Meanwhile, the local canines and felines are dressed and ready for poolside fun.
Similarly, the Northwestern Mutual float delivers its message with humor.
Entitled, “Spend Your Life Living”, it features a family of vacationing llamas, sailing down the “Llazy River”!
Whimsy, beauty and a message
The Chipotle Mexican Grill float, “Cultivate the Future of Farming”, includes these whimsical pink pigs.
However, they’re just an addition to the main feature: a giant animated tractor, behind which farm animals roam freely.
Sunflowers and detailed growing crops add color and beauty to the float’s appeal.
Its message: support the next generation of farmers.
Commemorating landmark dates
2020 is a landmark year for nonprofit The General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Their float, “The Voyage of Hope”, commemorates the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the “Mayflower” in Provincetown.
The pumpkins and crops made to go on the float are both fresh and sculptured. Meanwhile, “Plymouth Rock”‘s granite-like look comes from a mix of light and dark lettuce seed, black poppy seed and white sweet rice.
Meanwhile, the Chinese-American Heritage Foundation float also commemorates an anniversary.
September 2, 2020, marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. And the Chinese-American Heritage Foundation float, themed “American Heroes”, honors World War II recipients of the Congressional Gold Medals.
Those recipients include 20,000 Chinese-American World War II veterans.
Along the sides of the float are sculptured reproductions of the Congressional Gold Medal.
Additional honorees whom this float commemorates include Filipino World War II veterans, Tuskegee Airmen, Native American Code Talkers and the crew of the USS Indianapolis.
Hope for social change
Like the Chipotle float, many of the floats addressed current social issues, in keeping with the 2020 Rose Parade® theme, “The Power of Hope”.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation float, “Hope for the Homeless”, features a community of new, affordable homes at the intersection of “Dream Street” and “Hope Avenue”.
On the other side of the facility was the UPS Store float. The UPS Store, which is the exclusive sponsor of the Toys for Tots Literacy program, reminds viewers, through its float, that “Stories Change Our World”.
The float, according to the Tournament of Roses® media guide, features a family of endangered golden lion tamarins. The float depicts them in the wild, co-existing peacefully with their fellow creatures.
Meanwhile, the Dole Packaged Foods float focuses on sustainability.
Themed “Sunshine for All”, the float depicts a spinning globe–signifying a world where healthy and nutritious non-GMO food is available to everyone.
Keep in mind: all of these floats are highly detailed. Generally, the decorating process, for float elements, involves gluing on materials, one bean or tiny seed at a time.
So , there’s a question that occurs to us every year.
How in the world do the Fiesta staff and volunteers get everything done on time? Especially considering that the floats leave for the parade route around 6 pm on the 31st?
We posed that question to Beverly, during our interview.
Her answer: “Magic”.
We’ll be looking forward to seeing that magic, once again, on New Year’s Day 2020.
