Decorating a goat for Rose Parade float 2016
Pasadena

See behind the scenes of the South Pasadena Rose Parade float

by carollightwood
South Pasadena float Rose Parade
Local volunteers are busily adding flowers and other organic material to the 2016 Rose Parade float.

As I write this dozens of volunteers are busily putting flowers on this year’s South Pasadena float for the Tournament of Roses parade on Friday morning. On the parade route and afterwards the floats are gorgeous to see and smell heavenly, but while they’re being assembled the scene is chaotic.

Preparing roses for South Pasaden float
4 girls prepare to put Cinnamon roses into vials filled with water before they are attached to the float.

Boxes and tubs of flowers are stacked here and there. People are coming and going–some helping decorate the float, some just watching and others, like me, taking pictures.

Driving a few miles to join the 2016 Rose Parade

Late on Thursday, the driver will slowly back the float out of the huge tent it has been in and then drive up to join the line of Rose Parade floats, engines idly, along Orange Grove Avenue. This happens a little after midnight, January 1, 2016 and the sounds of those engines reaches for almost a mile around the area.

Here is what the float is supposed to look like when it is done. Below are photos of how it looks two days before it rolls out of the tent and onto the street.

CONGRATULATIONS! On January 1st. 2016 the City of South Pasadena’s float won the National Award in the Rose Parade!

official picture of South Pasadena float
The official picture of the float entered by the city of South Pasadena in the 2016 Rose Parade.
A girl and the bunny both with black jackets watching other decorate from high up on the float.
A girl and the bunny both with dark jackets watching others decorate from high up on the float.
Goat with roses South Pasadena float
I love this billy goat covered with pampas grass. It will be at the front of the float for South Pasadena. I notice he’s not shown in the picture of the official float approved by the Tournament of Roses committee. (Hmmm. I’m adding this later.  I saw the float in the parade and didn’t see this billy goat so I’m not sure what this was all about.)
decorating a racoon South Pasadena float
Two men are decorating a big raccoon that will join the bunny on a woodland stump. I suspect the black part of the tail is covered with seeds. The body appears to be covered with Spanish moss.
The rules for the Tournament of Roses state that all visible surfaces of the floats must be covered with organic materials. These orange and lemon slices are ready to be glued on--somewhere.
The rules for the Tournament of Roses state that all visible surfaces of the floats must be covered with natural materials. These orange and lemon slices are ready to be glued on–somewhere.
Red roses South Pasadena float
These plastic containers of red roses will end up on the float–somewhere. Obviously someone has the master plan for the flowers.
Metro Gold Line train in South Pasadena
Less than 200 feet away from the float a Gold Line Metro train races through South Pasadena.

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