Rose Parade

[joho]

HGTV channal 51 Mediacom
Live coverage and un-interupted............no commercials!

Happy New Year Sowallers

 

[Teresa]

HGTV channal 51 Mediacom
Live coverage and un-interupted............no commercials!

Happy New Year Sowallers

happy new year to you joho! I missed this thread, but I didn't miss the Rose Parade. thanks to Allifunn who made me sit through the entire thing on HGTV (we had taped it so we watched it later). we saw all the beautiful horses, marching bands from all over the country, and quite a few magnificent, beautiful floats.

I remembered that the floats included tons of flowers, but I did not realize how many are required, along with so many other natural materials such as leaves, seeds or bark, to make a whole float! here is a blurb from Pasadena Tournament of Roses website:

The Rose Parade's elaborate floats have come a long way since the Tournament's early days. Today, float building is a multi-million dollar business. Although a few floats are built solely by volunteers from their sponsoring communities, most are built by professional float building companies.
Float construction begins shortly after the previous year's Parade is over. The process starts with a specially built chassis, upon which is built a framework of steel and chicken wire. In a process called "cocooning", the frame is sprayed with a polyvinyl material, which is then painted in the colors of the flowers to be applied later. Every inch of the float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds, or bark. Volunteer workers swarm over the floats in the days after Christmas, their hand and clothes covered with glue and petals. The most delicate flowers are placed in individual vials of water, which are set into the float one by one.

here are some fun facts offered by hgtv's website:

When: Thursday, January 1, 2010, 11am /10c
Where: Pasadena, California
Theme: A Cut Above the Rest
TV coverage: Home & Garden Television (HGTV)
Grand Marshal: Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger
Rose Queen: Natalie Innocenzi
Length of parade: 5.5 miles
Where it starts: At the corner of Ellis Street and Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena
Where it ends: Sierra Madre and Villa Street

Part 2: Other Fun Facts for 2010
The Rose Queen and Rose Princesses have presided over the annual celebration every year since 1930. During their reign they make many social and media appearances, serving as goodwill ambassadors for the Tournament of Roses Association. Each September hundreds of local young women between the ages of 17 and 21 participate in the month-long selection process to become a member of the Royal Court. Participants are evaluated on a number of qualities, including poise, academic achievement, public speaking ability and community involvement.