Day 2: Rose Bowl Parade Float Tours and Band Fest

My family and I agree that the highlight of our Cali trip was by far our tour of the Tournament of Roses Parade float barns and learning/observing how the floats are decorated.  Each year there is a theme to the parade, and this year it was "Making A Difference".  Each group that participates is free to develop its own style and design, however every inch of visible float must be covered in only natural and organic materials.  Sometimes it's rose petals or sunflower seeds, sometimes it is orange slices and marigold pollen.

There are rows of shelves, all covered in bins, trays and boxes of material.  The sheer magnitude of this operation is overwhelming 

The floats are built months ahead of time, but aren't moved into the barns until the week prior to the parade.  The decorating begins so far in advance to the actual parade, they have to come up with solutions to keep the flowers and buds looking great until the big day!  The picture above is of a group of volunteers attaching water vials to individual flowers.

It's insane how enormous the floats are, but more impressive is how detailed and meticulously decorated these floats are.  Many of the organizations have their own teams decorating, as well as specific organizations who volunteer as a group.  There were a group of senior citizens helping out who were part of the Rhodes Scholar program (photo below).

You can also volunteer for one day or a whole week to help decorate.  I would love to do that in the future!  

After our tour of the float barns, we headed for Rose Bowl Stadium to watch Band Fest.  This is a two day event where each of the bands marching in the parade have the opportunity to perform in an exhibition.  It was boiling hot and we were staring into the blinding sun for several hours but as always, watching my sister and her bandmates perform is always a pleasure.