As the 134th Rose Parade approaches to welcome in the new year, the South Pasadena Tournament of Roses committee and volunteers are hard at work to complete another community-built float for a city tradition spanning back to 1893.
“Turning the Corner” is the theme for this year’s upcoming parade, emphasizing a fresh start and the possibilities of a new year.
Brant Dunlap, president of the SPTOR committee, said that the float entry for this year, “Spark of Imagination,” will follow tradition and aim to achieve “something whimsical and fun.”
Dunlap said, typically, the design process for every South Pasadena float begins every year with a goal of making people of all ages smile and laugh. With this year’s float plans not being much different from years past, the committee drew inspiration from Rube Goldberg, a 20th century cartoonist known for his eccentric invention drawings.
“We stuck to what we like to do. It’s a fun float and a Rube Goldberg-inspired design, which has a lot of moving pieces that do very minimal things. (The float design) is a rendition of an old game called ‘Mouse Trap,’” Dunlap said.
The 2023 float design was originally submitted to the committee in 2009 by Scott Feldmann and has since gone through three re-works. The updated concept for the float will feature mice doing science projects, which will represent the spark of imagination, and will have a range of quirky, fun aspects aligning with the float’s theme.
“My favorite part about this float are these three Ronald McDonald-style boots that are spinning around doing absolutely nothing. There’s something about these boots that make me smile ––smiling at absolutely nothing,” Dunlap said, laughing.
Though the three boots will be on the non-camera side of the float, Dunlap hopes that the quirkiness and extravagant, yet simple, features will draw attention from community members, or any Rose Parade viewer, and bring them joy.
Currently, the construction and welding of the float is nearly finished with the decoration phase soon to follow.
“To put the whole float into perspective, it’s about 75% done as an entity. When we talk about the float (development), we think in two stages –– construction and decoration,” Dunlap said.
Creating South Pasadena’s float is a yearlong process –– beginning with a three-month design process reviewing the construction feasibility and budget followed by the construction of the float, which begins sometime around May of every year.
Dunlap’s role is to oversee the Rose Parade float project and provide any support the committee needs to complete the float. He underscored and praised the hard work and contributions from individual chairs of the committee, South Pasadena residents and other volunteers.
South Pasadena holds the title for the oldest self-built float in the Rose Parade, which recognizes the city’s tradition of community involvement, teamwork and volunteerism deeply ingrained into the production of the annual floats.
“The float is worked on primarily by the community early on. The whole thing is community-based. Typically, we’ll start to get more and more volunteers from outside of the South Pasadena community starting the week before Christmas and the day after,” Dunlap said.
“A huge thank you to the community –– everyone. There’s only 26,000 people in this town and they just keep supporting. This community is unbelievable,” he continued.
While acknowledging the dedication of each individual SPTOR chairperson, Dunlap specifically named and thanked co-construction chairmen Steve Fillingham and Rob Benjamin, decoration chairwoman Janet Benjamin, design and event chairman James Jontz and the driver of the float, Diane Giles.
The 2023 Rose Parade is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 2, at 8 a.m. and will follow and 5½ mile route, with most of the float viewing taking place on the long stretch of Colorado Boulevard.
The Pasadena Tournament of Roses selected Nicole Cavender, Jennie O’Hagan and Lois Hiranaga as the Rose Parade float judges to grant 24 floats with awards based on three categories; float design, floral presentation and entertainment value.
Judging the Rose Parade floats is done in two stages –– soft judging and final judging. The soft judging is planned for the day before the final judging, with the three float judges giving a speech and a first look at the float. The final judging is scheduled for 7:22 a.m. on the day of the parade and winners will be announced on the front steps of the Wrigley Gardens Tournament House by the 2023 Tournament of Roses President Amy Wainscott.
Float Turns a Corner Toward New Year
