It’s 6 a.m. on Sunday — New Year’s Day — and I’m on my way down to Pasadena to pick up my media credentials, wondering what the day holds. 

I’m also looking forward to seeing the fabled Rosamond Barn. I’m hoping it will be open and, if possible, I can meet the Cal Poly student crews who are putting the last touches on their Pomona and San Luis Obispo universities’ float for the annual Rose Parade.

The Barn is a huge metal- and tin-covered structure large enough to house a dozen or so of the larger floats. Close to half of the floats in the parade are constructed there.

Visit with the Crew

Literally, post-Christmas, the Barn was an almost nonstop hub for a week of intense work to attach flowers, leaves, seed, foliage and anything else derived from live plants to their floats. 

Luckily, I’m able to get access to the Cal Poly float. One of the helpers points to the far end of the barn, where I spot a half-dozen or so of the crew members. I ask if I can spend a few minutes talking with them.

Adrian, Lucia, Julia, Shruthika, Alex, Lucian and a few others whose names I’ve missed are beaming with pride. Their baby is almost ready to leave the Barn.

The float is amazing. There are snails and mushrooms everywhere, and there’s a sense of life on the rise, with exquisite patterns bathed on yellows, purples and greens, with exotic plants bursting out of the hillsides, deluxe apéritifs for the hungry snails.

Planning for the Theme

What I discover as we talk is how challenging building a float like this can be. The planning begins six months earlier in the summer with intense collaboration to decide on the float’s theme.

“We start first by soliciting ideas for the theme from throughout our communities,” one of the crew members tells me. “We got hundreds of ideas to sort though.”

Choosing the best theme isn’t exactly easy given that this and other aspects of the design and construction require constant contact and collaboration between the two Cal Poly campuses located hundreds of miles apart.

Interestingly, the float builders don’t exactly get to choose the theme for their float. The Parade Committee requires entrants to submit three theme, with the committee getting the final say.

The committee’s selection, “Road to Redemption” turned out to be the perfect choice, based on a celebration of life on the forest floor and the process of decomposition and regrowth.

Getting Out of the Barn

During the 70-plus years that the Cal Poly campuses have collaborated on the float, they’ve won 61 awards. You have to go back to 2007 to find a year that they didn’t win one. 

I’m jealous. This seems to be the perfect mix of classroom learning, skill acquisition, creative environment and collaboration one might find in a collegiate environment. I can’t think of a better way to get educated.

With the last touch-up done, the crew moves the scaffolding away from the float and prepares to move it out of the Barn. 

Getting out is not an easy thing to do, it turns out. First, the driver is scrunched down into a space barely 3 feet high. There is an array of controls that looks more like those in an aircraft than vehicle. 

Neither is it as easy as turning on the key. There are electrical systems that need to be energized, hydraulic systems to pressurize, and front and backup cameras to be turned on. There is an opening in front perhaps about 6 inches high and 3 feet wide to see ahead and a backup camera in the rear that is a bit more than 50 feet to the rear.

Clearly, the floats don’t move without a lot of help. Spotters on either side, front and back, help guide the driver through a series of hand signals. It takes a series of eight three-point turns to clear the side of the barn and head toward the street.

The Rose Parade Experience

Once outside the Barn, the crew is back to work, replacing any wilted flowers, rearranging clusters of flowers, and retouching any blemishes on the light-colored mushrooms. In a few hours, it will be time for judgment.

Looking back, I realize how much a visit to the Rosamond Barn adds to the Rose Parade experience. There is no cost for entry or parking. The Rose Bowl is nearby, and the opportunity to view the floats from a few feet away is priceless.

Afternoon Judging

The floats are lined up along a 200-yard section of road, fresh out of the Barn and ready for inspection. There are about 20 judges, both men and women, middle to older age, with pens out and clipboards in hand.

The inspection takes about five minutes. All of the moving parts, audio or other special features are required to operate successfully during that time. 

They slowly move from float to float, with hundreds of spectators watching their every movement looking for a signal that might provide a hint of what they might be thinking.

They linger a bit at the Cal Poly float to meet the student team and thank them for their work. I get a bit choked up with wishes that the judges will view their entry favorably.

Parade Day

The evening before, I discovered a small side road off Live Oak Road that is perfect for parking. The walk to the corner where the TV cameras are located takes less than 10 minutes. 

I get there at 5:15 a.m., and there is still room to park. That will be gone by 6 p.m., for sure. But if the choice is between getting there early or walking a lot farther, early wins every time.

Of course, there are those who avoid that need by camping out for the night. While some keep things simple by bringing folding chairs and sleeping bags, others go full in bringing blow-up beds, propane tanks and heating lamps, stoves and what seems like enough for a weekend or two.

I’m amazed that the City of Pasadena allows such things, but apparently almost anything goes if you’re willing to carry it in.

The Long Wait

At TV corner, children from the Temecula Dance Co. are practicing for a routine they will perform as a part of the Honda float, “Forever Determined.” I’m cold watching them as they stand around in T-shirts and light clothing.

But as the music comes on and Fitz and the Tantrums begin to sing, they come alive, their dance movements synchronized perfectly to the sounds of the heavy beat. 

No jackets needed for them.

The walk east on Colorado Boulevard to the press box is two short blocks, first down a steep downhill followed by a flat section leading to a set of portable stands, where I’ll spend the next four-plus hours standing pretty much in the same place.

The wait seems interminable, broken only by a scattered group of what might best be called religious zealots, each carrying signs while using portable megaphones to share their message. 

I’m told they come to the parade every year, perhaps lured by the captive nature of the crowds lining both sides of the roadway. On another day they might be an unwelcome irritant, but on a cold, dark morning with another hour and a half until start time, they are a welcome diversion.

Rose Parade 2023

Finally, it’s 8 a.m., and a cadre of motorcycle cops cruises down Colorado full lights and sirens to clear the streets.

Then comes the B-1B Lancer bomber flyovers, whose incredibly overwhelming roar clears the remaining stragglers and opens the road for American Honda’s float.

The float is an elegantly laid out rainbow of colors that highlight the company’s determination to electrify every aspect of travel, a perfect lead-in to the 23 other floats that will follow.

As the Marine Corps band passes by, I spot the Cal Poly float cruising into sight, its iconic mushroom and snail-riding high on the skyline. Then I spot the banner. The students have won the Extraordinaire Award this year, which is pretty good considering that theirs is the only student-built float in the parade.

From this point on, the floats, the marching bands and the equestrian groups form what seem like a never-ending stream of fantasyland colors, the sound of horses prancing, the sound of dancing, horns and drums.

Sharing Experiences

In a sense, it is difficult to pick out any one float, band or performing group, or award winner. The Rose Parade is more a series of moving pieces floating along Colorado Boulevard, offering an opportunity to share a few moments with us as they continue on for others to experience. 

The Floats

Each of the floats’ creators share their own concept of the Rose Parade’s overall theme, “Turning the Corner”:

Road to Redemption … The Power of Dreams … Celebrating 50 Years of Conservation … Together We Rise … Expanding Hope … Feed Your Soul … The Embodiment of Nature … Spark of Imagination … Building for the Future … Protecting the Wild …Lifting Each Other Up … Always Forward.

Evocative themes, each carried out in a way that inspires as well as entertains.

The Bands, the Dangers and the Performers

The marching bands are all impressive, huge in numbers of performers and sounds, from as far away as Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Minnesota, and feature high school and college students.

There are also amazing groups from even farther away, such as the Buhos Marching Band from Veracruz, Mexico, the Triuggio Marching Band from Italy, and from Asia, the All Gifu Honor Green Band and Taipei First Girls High School Marching Band. Each brings with them the unique sounds, costumes and colors of their countries. 

In all, they provide the perfect interlude between floats — entertainment at its best.

The Grand Marshal

Almost lost in the stream of floats was the person that if anything symbolizes the 2023 Rose Parade’s theme and perhaps serves as a living symbol of what the parade represents — the grand marshal.

“I love the theme of ‘Turning the Corner’ — the idea that we all can make a conscious decision to go in a different direction, towards something better,” parade grand marshal Gabby Giffords said of the honor. “This philosophy of moving ahead is one that I’ve tried to embody both in my personal journey of recovery since being shot in 2011 and in the fight for gun violence prevention that has become my life’s work.”

Heading Home

All too quickly, the parade is over and thousands of us are making the long walk back to our cars. I’ve discovered I’ve been a part of something more than a parade. The Rose Parade is not just something you go to, but you experience.

I can’t wait until next year.