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Colourful floats, energetic bands and majestic trotting horses and large crowds rang within the new yr Wednesday, Jan. 1, through the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena.
A whole lot of hundreds who had camped out and gathered alongside the 5.5-mile parade route awaited the festivities, which kicked off at 8:06 a.m., with the theme this yr of “Best Day Ever!” and a thundering B-2 Stealth Bomber flyover.
Crowds for Wednesday’s parade surpassed any since earlier than the pandemic, stated Pasadena spokesperson Lisa Derderian.
Other than a short float breakdown and a minor protest, the parade went forward with none main incidents.
However the festivities had been tempered by nationwide tragedy.
Simply hours earlier than the parade, at least15 folks died and 30 others had been injured in New Orleans when a car rammed right into a crowd of New Yr’s Day revelers within the French Quarter alongside Bourbon Avenue.
The FBI confirmed the early-morning tragedy was being investigated as an act of terrorism.
It despatched shockwaves all through the nation, together with in Pasadena, the place Louisiana Lt. Gov. Invoice Nungesser was on the town accompanying his state’s float within the Rose Parade.
“It really is a different mood here than it should be,” he stated. “It’s horrible that it takes a tragedy like this with extra barricades, particularly with the Tremendous Bowl coming, it’s been talked about earlier than. When you’ve got a loopy individual that wishes to trigger havoc, its very onerous to cease them.
With Rose Parade crowds waking up instantly engaged within the parade’s festivities, some within the crowd had no thought about what had taken place, or had been simply studying about it.
In an announcement early Wednesday, the town of Pasadena and Match of Roses prolonged their condolences to New Orleans and warranted guests to Pasadena of a secure parade.
“The Parade is a top level Federal event and we have the ability to call in additional resources if the need exists,” the assertion learn. “We have a hard shut down of vehicles along the entire Parade route in addition to very robust vehicle barriers at intersections. over 1,000 law enforcement personnel are working the Parade and Game.”
Final yr, a lady rammed her automotive right into a barricade on the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Chester Avenue.
‘The highlight of my year’
Aloe Blacc and Kiesza kicked off the parade with the opening spectacular punctuated by a B-2 bomber flyover. Shortly after, the floats, bands and equestrian teams started their march.
Tennis legend and social justice icon Billie Jean King, the parade’s grand marshal, sported a rose purple blazer as she waved to the gang from a Rolls-Royce Phantom III.
King stated rising up in Lengthy Seashore her household made some extent of watching the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl recreation yearly.
“It was something we would look forward to every Jan. 1,” King stated.
Together with the float builders, band members and performers, unsung heroes just like the pooper scooper brigade, which adopted equestrian teams to maintain the route clear, assist the parade run easily every year. Amongst their ranks for the final 34 years has been Peggy O’Leary.
“I love it,” the South Pasadena resident stated. “It’s the highlight of my year.”
The white jumpsuit-clad scoopers received a number of the greatest cheers from paradegoers.
For these ready for the parade to start out distributors supplied guests with heat treats. One such vendor, Mario Rodriguez, of Los Angeles, arrange store on the nook of Arroyo Parkway and Colorado Boulevard to promote champurrado, pan dulce, cafe olla and tamales.
His sing-song name of “coffee, cinnamon, sugar and a happy New Year!” attracted prospects to buy $4 coffees because the sky brightened over Pasadena. Rodriguez stated enterprise was good.
“I appreciate everything, the bands, the music, the families,” Rodriguez stated.
Eliza Winter of Redlands Excessive College bought memento packages for $15 every. It’s an annual gig for choir college students on the college to lift cash for choir journeys.
“It’s been good,” she stated of enterprise. “You really have to hustle and speak up.”
Folks discovered a chicken’s eye view of the parade from a constructing on the nook of De Lacey Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.
‘It’s very welcoming’
Followers of Ohio State College and College of Oregon ready for the Rose Bowl recreation by repping their colours alongside the parade route.
Gisselle Garay is a College of Oregon grad and introduced her household to city to cheer on their Geese.
“It’s a culture that kind of grows on you,” Garay stated. “It’s very welcoming. We recognize each other.”
A number of floats captured the eye of crowds alongside the parade route. Some for his or her animation and others for his or her artistic design.
“It was beautiful, the peacock float was really pretty,” stated Lauren Ball from Texas, referring to the Metropolis of Hope float. Ball was sporting a scarf with stars that stated ‘Happy New Year’ with a blanket in hand as she walked down Colorado Boulevard on the finish of the parade.
Reside flames capturing from a volcano on the Metropolis of Burbank’s “Having A-Lava Fun” garnered hoots and cheers from the onlooking crowd.
“I would definitely recommend people attend in person. We did the float viewing before the parade too and recommend doing that as well. We walked down Orange Grove this morning and saw them again. That was really neat.”
The one float hiccup got here for the town of Torrance float which wanted to be towed to finish the route.
A bunch of Free Palestine advocates briefly marched in a straight line carrying a big banner.
Parade watchers initially thought it was parade entry. Final yr, protesters briefly blocked the parade earlier than peacefully departing.
Police briefly detained and cited the protesters for interrupting the parade and marching in entrance of a band for a number of blocks, Derderian stated after the parade. Nevertheless, the roughly dozen protesters had been launched shortly afterward. However the group claimed that 4 members remained in custody late Wednesday afternoon.
‘Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’
Except for pooper scoopers, a number of marching bands obtained the most important ovations. In its debut on the Rose Parade Jackson State College’s Marching Band, “Sonic Boom of the South,” paused alongside the path to carry out for the gang.
“It was a great experience for us and our students, who were really excited about the best day ever, which is today,” Denise Gregory, Provost and Vice President for Tutorial Affairs at Jackson State College, stated. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of our students.”
One other spotlight was the 605 All-Star Marching Band, the most important on this yr’s version, with greater than 500 members representing three college districts, seven cities and eight excessive faculties alongside the 605 freeway.
Kyoto Tachibana Excessive College Inexperienced Band had every line of the band sprint by way of the flip from Orange Grove Boulevard onto Colorado Boulevard in a sweeping movement.
On the finish of the parade route close to Sierra Madre Boulevard and Villa Avenue, crowds started gathering hours earlier than any float or band would make an look.
A number of mother and father of band members from the Los Angeles All-Metropolis Marching Band arrange store close to the top making the band’s arrival the primary occasion of these gathered on the conclusion.
For everybody else the top of the parade supplied an opportunity to examine the floats up shut and take footage with them. Parade members chatted with the gang till it was their flip to maintain shifting.
The maintain up for a number of the bigger floats was becoming them underneath the 210 freeway.
Band members with the Homestead Excessive College Mighty Mustang Marching Band and Coloration Guard from Cupertino, California, yelled “Best day ever,” to one another whereas they waited.
Those that missed the parade reside or couldn’t catch the T.V. broadcast have an opportunity to get an up shut have a look at the floats for the following two days. The floats shall be parked on the nook of Sierra Madre Avenue and Washington Boulevard till Friday, Jan. 3.
Workers writers Teresa Liu, Anissa Rivera, Steve Scauzillo, Mercedes Cannon-Tran, Christina Merino, Tyler Evains and Lisa Jacobs contributed to this report.
Initially Printed: January 1, 2025 at 6:23 PM PST
