The Rose Parade is an event that happens every year at the end of the year. It is hosted by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses. It is an annual parade to mark the start of the Rose Bowl Game held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day. The Rose Parade is produced by the non-profit Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. The parade usually starts at 8:00 a.m., and includes flower covered floats, marching bands, and esquartin units. The parade is accompanied in the afternoon by the Rose Bowl football game. The Rose Parade has been uninterrupted despite both world wars. The Rose Parade was first held on January 1, 1890. Hundreds of thousands of people watch the Rose Parade in person and millions more watch it on t.v. The Rose Bowl college football game was added in 1902 to help fund the cost of staging the parade.Since 2011 Honda has sponsored the Rose Parade.
In 2020 the Rose Parade had featured 40 floats, 17 equestrian units with over 450 horses, and 20 marching bands. The theme of this 131st Rose Parade is “Power Of Hope”. Tournament of Roses Parade floats are flower-covered parade floats, used in the annual New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade held in Pasadena, California. They evolved from flower-decorated horse carriages with the present day requirement that “every inch of every float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark”.[1] Three civic and floral industry leaders judge the floats and award prizes in 24 categories. Some communities and organizational sponsors, such as the City of Burbank, the City of Downey, City of South Pasadena, the City of Sierra Madre, the City of La Cañada Flintridge and the Cal Poly Universities, are referred to as “self-built floats” as they design, construct and decorate their floats solely on volunteer hours; but most are built by professional float building companies.Over time, contestants began to incorporate unique and original designs. Today, floats are more elaborate and bigger in size. Although participants continue the tradition of decorating floats exclusively with flowers, the use of new technology such as computerized animation, and robots[3] has also been incorporated into design. Some materials also allowed in floats include, steel, plastic, wire mesh and plasticized spray coverings.[4] One of the primary and most enforced rule of the float is that structure must be completely covered in flowers, petals and other vegetable materials such as “seeds, leaves and stems”[4] Some flowers used in floats include roses, orchids, chrysanthemums and different types of blossoms.