Burbank Tournament of Roses Association (#76)
Float Theme: Free Dog Wash The Burbank float features a good-natured young lad who has decided to clean up the neighborhood by offering free dog washes. After finishing with a poodle, who is very pleased with her new look, the boy turns to a neighborhood mutt. Behind the tree, a future customer plays in the mud one last time before his turn.
Seated on a velvet cushion of Love Story red roses, the poodle is styled in over 4,000 Nora pink carnations. Her clipped coat is made of white pearl rice dusted in crushed fuchsia bougainvillea. The float features nearly 3,000 roses, cattleya and dendrobium orchids, white and dark blue irises, and Butterscotch, Bronze and China mums. With one of six self-built floats in the parade, Burbank Tournament of Roses Association is a year-round organization, composed entirely of volunteers who design, build and decorate the float.
Broken Horn Ropers (#77)
Marshal: Felix A. Lopez
Riding eight paint, palomino and quarterhorses, the Broken Horn Ropers are a culturally diverse, multigenerational team. Marshal Felix Lopez is recognized as one of the greatest trick ropers, having won world titles in trick roping in the U.S. and Mexico. Lopez and his team members perform fancy rope tricks such as the Flat Loop, the Umbrella, the Texas Skip and the Lighting Bolt.
The ropers wear Western attire, Stetson hats, hand-crafted leather belts and handmade, custom silver buckles designed for this parade. Their Western pleasure show saddles are handmade and hand-tooled with delicately placed saddle silver. Coordinated head stalls, reigns, bits and spurs used by the riders are sterling silver.
City of Long Beach (#78)
Float Theme: A Day on the Bay
A regatta of colorful sabot sailboats set the tone for "A Day on the Bay" in Long Beach's 90th Rose Parade entry. The city's Queensway Bay and Alamitos Bay provide the setting for the sailors, as a fast-pedaling group of bicyclists enjoy the type of journey available on the seaside city's more than 60 miles of dedicated bike paths. A replica of the Shoreline Park lighthouse at Rainbow Harbor provides guidance for the float riders with a brightly flashing strobe light.
The lighthouse is created with ground rice, lunaria, carnation petals and silverleaf. The sails on the sabots feature statice, rice, carnation petals, split peas and strawflowers. The trees' foliage is made of commodore fern and orchids. And the bicycles are covered with carnation petals, a variety of seeds and silverleaf.
Los Angeles Unified School District Honor Band (#79)
Location: Los Angeles, California
The Los Angeles band is a composite band made up of students from more than 50 high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Under the leadership of director Anthony L. White, the 352-member Los Angeles Unified School District Honor Band celebrates its 35th anniversary of marching in the Rose Parade this year.
Started in 1972, the all brass/percussion band and pageantry were developed to allow students from the second largest school district in the nation the honor of representing their home, school and community in the Tournament of Roses Parade. The band has also performed at Disneyland, Super Bowls, World Series, Inaugurations and more. The musicians are outfitted in traditional red West Point style jackets, blue trousers with white stripes and white shakos (hats). The shield carriers and tall flags are outfitted in blue bottoms with red tops.
City of Torrance (#80)
Float Theme: Nature's Wonders
Inspired by the scenic beauty of Yosemite National Park, Torrance celebrates its 53rd Rose Parade float by saluting one of "Nature's Wonders." Towering sequoia trees shade the forest floor and frame the scene for this spectacular nature study. Under the watchful gaze of great-horned owls, nature lovers explore the Yosemite Valley as winter snow thaws into spring meadows. A grizzly bear lumbers from hibernation, as a mule deer and her fawn lazily graze on sweet meadow grasses. A fox, ducks, rabbits and quail (California's state bird) are at home amid 12,000 roses in this lush setting.
The valley meadows spring to life with brilliant yellow daffodils, pink Monte Casino, orange lilies, purple liatris, gold forsythia, gerberas and roses. Glistening snow is created in white chrysanthemums, roses and dendrobium orchids over coconut flakes. Sequoia trees of fresh cedar boughs tower over a pond of blue irises and hydrangeas. The replica 1934 Duesenberg is artistically crafted in yellow strawflower petals with interior cushions of black seaweed.
