Tournament of Roses Float Participants

The Rose Parade's elaborate floats have come a long way since the Tournament's early days. Today, float building is a multi-million dollar business and float construction begins just after the previous year's Parade is over.

The process starts with a specially-built chassis, upon which is built a framework of steel and chicken wire. In a process called "cocooning", the frame is sprayed with a polyvinyl material, which is then painted in the colors of the flowers to be applied later. Every inch of every float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark. Volunteer workers swarm over the floats in the days after Christmas, their hands and clothes covered with glue and petals. The most delicate flowers are placed in individual vials of water, which are set into the float one by one.

Computerized animation has had an enormous impact on Rose Parade floats. Recent Parade floats have featured King Kong stomping through a floral jungle, a guitar-playing dinosaur, pigs dancing the hula and a 60-foot-tall talking robot, all controlled by computers. But through all the changes, the Rose Parade has remained true to its floral beginnings, and each float is decorated with more flowers than the average florist will use in five years. Applications for floats are accepted usually more than a year in advance.

2013 Rose Parade float participants:

• AIDS Healthcare Foundation
• American Honda
• Beverly Hills Pet Care Foundation
• Burbank Tournament of Roses Association
• Cal Poly Universities
• China Airlines
• City of Alhambra
• City of Glendale
• City of Hope
• City of Los Angeles
• City of San Gabriel Centennial
• City of South Pasadena
• City of Torrance
• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
• Department of Defense 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee
• Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.
• Disneyland Resort
• Dole
• Donate Life
• Downey Rose Float Association
• Farmers Insurance
• HGTV
• Kaiser Permanente
• Kiwanis International
• La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association
• Lions Clubs International
• Lutheran Hour Ministries
• Macy*s
• Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economies, Republic of Indonesia
• Miracle-Gro
• The Nurses' Float
• Odd Fellows and Rebekahs
• Participating University, Rose Bowl Game Presented by VIZIO - Stanford University
• Participating University, Rose Bowl Game Presented by VIZIO - University of Wisconsin
• RFD-TV
• Rotary International
• Shriners Hospitals For Children
• Sierra Madre Rose Float Association
• Trader Joe's
• Wells Fargo
• Western Asset