Tournament of Roses Floats - Modern-day Process

Modern-day Process

Directly after the parade, floats are stripped to their chassis. Structural steel elements are reused where possible; organic materials and sculptural steel are recycled.

Shortly after each year's parade is over, and the next year's parade theme is announced, the parade sponsors and participating communities start to plan their floats for the following year. A "theme draft" meeting is held in mid-February where builders select their float theme. The Tournament assures that there are not too many similar floats.

Characters and other objects on the float are created as separate elements to add later, consisting of a framework of steel and chicken wire. The chassis has beams and steel rod welded to it to support a mesh cover. The float is then "cocooned" in the next process; it is sprayed with a polyvinyl material which acts as a base for inserting decoration. This base is painted with the colors of the flowers to be applied to the float.

Every square inch of the exposed surface of a float entered in the Rose Parade strictly must be covered with flowers or other natural materials. These other decorative applicants include bark, seed and leaves. Decorating with the non-perishable materials is performed first. In the days following Christmas, the live additions to the float are applied by volunteers or hired workers. Many people end each day covered in glue and petals. Delicate flowers are placed in individual vials of water and set into the float one-by-one. The Tournament of Roses is the largest consumer of flowers in the world, and flowers arrive from all over the world.

Many floats, along with their drive train, include computer-controlled robotic mechanisms to animate the floats. Most float drivers can only see the ground below them. An observer communicates by intercom to the driver. Most observers are hidden within the float and have limited visibility. Each float has a Tournament Member (Float Liaison) assigned to it who shepherds the float from the float barn to the formation area and down the parade route. Most ride on motor scooters although some walk. The Float Liaisons communicate with the float's observer by hand signals. At the two corners other Tournament Members direct the floats in addition to the Float Liaisons.

It is estimated that it takes 60 volunteers working 10 hours a day for 10 days to decorate one float.

• 20 daisies, 30 roses or 36 marigolds will cover one square foot of a float area
• Over 500,000 roses (in vials) used in the parade
• 15 tons of steel along with 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of chicken wire for the framework of a float
• 600 tons of steel, 5,000 gallons of glue and 18 million flowers are used to make the floats each year
• 935 “white-suiters” spent 80,000 hours to manpower and plan the parade
• Floats must collapse to no more than 16.5 ft (5.0 m). high, to pass under a freeway overpass
• Natural materials, such as bark, seeds, leaves and flowers, shall cover the floats
• Twenty-four awards for some 50 float entries
• Length of parade is 5.5 miles (8.9 km), about 2.25 hours long at 2.5 miles (4.0 km) per hour pace