You are going to ask the question what does Art have to do with the Rose Parade. The answer is everything.
In 1890 Charles Holder a member of the Hunt Club was speaking in New York bragging about Pasadena, California and the beautiful flowers in bloom while they were under tons of snow.
The club organized carriages decorated with flowers from their own garden onto their carriages and paraded down Colorado Avenue. Also included in this was foot races, polo matches, and a tug of war. This grew a crowd of 2000. The Rose Parade was born later called the Tournament of Roses. It was held on Sunday after the New Year. Sunday was the day it would not disturb the horses hitched on the street.
The Tournament of Roses has become such a large event that it requires 65,000 hours of combined people working together each year, or the equivalent of roughly 7.42 years of combined manpower. Fortunately for the Association, the group has 935 members, each of whom is assigned to one of 34 committees, and around 50 student ambassadors. The volunteers wear while with a red tie.
The creativity of this awesome event put on each year would boggle the mind if it wasn’t organized down to the last detail.
- The sketching of the floats, which in most cases now are built by professionals.
- Creating the animal or object to be decorated.
- The placement of the flowers and how many flowers and what colors and kinds are needed.
- The painting of the designs which are included on the floats.
- The costumes which are in some cases designed and hand made.
Art/Inspiration
Art and creativity are everywhere, inspiration is buzzing around this specular parade. Approximates 48 -72 hours before the parade the flowers are placed on the floats. Exhaustion is the end of the day.
Thank you for reading my article.
Copyright Linda Meckler 2021
www.lindameckler-author-artist.com