Fiesta Parade Floats of the 2017 Rose Parade – The Flowers Go On

On Friday afternoon I headed back out to Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale to check out the progress on the floats they are preparing for the 128th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade which will be held Monday, January 2, 2017, in Pasadena, California. The last time I visited was Tuesday, the day after Christmas. That was the first day that decorating could begin, so all they were adding then was the “dry goods” such as seeds, husks and cut up leaves and flowers. As they are all glued into place, the warehouse was pretty thick with the aroma of paint …

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Decorating of the 2017 Rose Parade Floats Begins

On Tuesday afternoon I headed back out to Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale to photograph the beginning of the decorating portion of the floats being built there for the 128th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade. Unlike my visit of two weeks ago when the warehouse sounded, smelled and looked a lot like any other workshop, yesterday was the first day that volunteers were allowed in to begin the actual decorating of the floats. When decorating the floats, they begin by adding the “dry goods” such as various seeds, husks and cut up leaves and flowers which are meticulously glued into …

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2017 Rose Parade Float Construction Begins

Tuesday afternoon I headed out to Irwindale to continue one of the few Christmas traditions I still keep with; photographing the construction of floats for the upcoming 128th Tournament of Roses Parade by Fiesta Parade Floats. Fiesta Floats creates some of the best floats in the Tournament of Roses Parade and is the most awarded float builder in Rose Parade history; it is no wonder why the City of Torrance has been using them at least as long as I have been covering the event (five or six years). At this phase of the construction, it is just that, construction. …

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Floats of the 127th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade

Happy New Year everyone. It is New Year’s Eve 2015 and today I went back out to Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale with the hopes of being able to photograph some of the completed floats for the 2016 Rose Parade before they were moved to Pasadena. While I have been photographing the construction of the floats over the past week, I have focused a lot on the City of Torrance entry for obvious reasons, but New Year’s Eve is also the day that I meet up with the representatives of the California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC). Usually I meet up …

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Torrance visits Fiesta Parade Floats

These photos were taken Monday night at Fiesta Parade Floats when the City of Torrance came out to Irwindale to check out the progress on the float they are entering for the 127th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade which will be held Friday morning in Pasadena. If you noticed my photos from last Wednesday you cannot help but notice that there has been significant progress made on the actual decorating of the floats. Last week when we were there it was a construction scene with the sound of metal being ground and the warehouse smelled of paint. Last night the …

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Float Construction at Fiesta Parade Floats

I have probably lost a lot of my readers on this site since I have been kind of slacking; especially when it comes to my annual Christmas coverage. I have been fighting some heavy congestion and going out in the cold night air just did not seem wise. However, there is one tradition I will not slack off on and that is the construction of the float for the 2016 Tournament of Roses Parade sponsored by the City of Torrance and built by award winning float builders, Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale. These photos were taken Wednesday afternoon, December 23. …

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Fiesta Floats of the 126th Tournament of Roses Parade

It is New Year’s Eve, and the time is up for the preparation of the floats for the 126th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade with will begin at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2015. I began my day by heading back out to Irwindale and Fiesta Parade Floats, the leading award winning float-builder in the Tournament of Roses Parade. I lucked out today as I happened to arrive at Fiesta Floats after they had begun removing some floats from the building they were built in, giving me the ability to take some photos without dozens (or hundreds) of people vying …

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Torrance comes to Fiesta Floats

On Sunday evening several bus loads of Torrance residents, along with their mayor, the city council, commissioners and other various dignitaries headed out to Irwindale and Fiesta Parade Floats to check out the progress of the float that the City of Torrance is sponsoring for the 126th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade. The theme of this year’s Rose Parade is “Inspiring Stories” with the Grand Marshal being Torrance hometown hero, Louis Zamperini, who passed away earlier this year. The Torrance entry is called “A Race Well Run” and will feature black-and-white photos of Zamperini’s life, the Olympic torch and other …

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Floats readied for the 125th Tournament of Roses Parade

If you will recall, last week I headed out to Fiesta Parade Floats to take photos of the floats they were building for the upcoming 125th Tournament of Roses Parade. It was December 23 and at that point the floats were virtual skeletons; waiting for December 26 when the actual decorating could begin. The parade rules state that all surfaces of the float framework must be covered in natural materials; usually flowers and seeds. Since these natural materials have a tendency to decay after they are plucked from the ground, the decorating does not begin until December 26. The decorating …

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Preparing for the 125th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade

This afternoon I headed out to Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale, CA to check out the progress on the float building for the upcoming 125th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade which will be held Wednesday, January 1, 2014. As I have been donating time towards helping the Torrance Rose Float Association (TRFA) raise the funds needed for building the float, I figured I would go out to where the float is being built so people can get an idea of what goes into a project like this. Fiesta Parade Floats builds award winning floats and has for several years; as …

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