It’s Rose Float Loading Day For Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) - One of the Central Coast’s hallmark events that heralds the holidays and the approach of a new year has arrived, California Polytechnic State University's dual campus design program for the Cal Poly Rose Float.
Since 1949, the San Luis Obispo and Pomona campuses have provided colorful floats to the annual New Year’s Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
“We have, I believe, nine moving parts on the float this year that are all doing their own thing with our central animation system, controlling everything at once, sync with the music and everything,” says Ryan Newton, this year’s Rose Float Construction Chair.
This year's float is “Jungle Jumpstart.”
“Most of what we've done so far is behind the scenes kind of things,” says Newton. “All the mechanical structures that are going to go on the float directly.”
The formal unveiling of each year's design and the load up of the north campus’s half of the float takes place at the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, sending essential pieces off to Pomona to be joined with the south campus’s half.
“The tallest point of the float, which I believe is 25 or 26 feet is that macaw,” says Haley Kost, this year’s Rose Float Decorations Chair. “We're trying to use fresh carnations. And it's a blue flower called Delphinium to create his patterns because he'll be the focal point. We want him to really stand out.”
Once the pieces are joined, the Pomona campus finishes the inner workings and applies the roses.
“Honestly, it doesn't feel real,” says Kost. “It's been almost an entire year. From the concept to designing all of the elements, testing all the different materials, doing the sourcing to find those flowers that we want, and to see it all come together in, like, one whole week is amazing.”
Be sure to tune in to the Rose Parade on New Year's Day to see the finished Jungle Jumpstart as it struts its way through Pasadena, ringing in 2026.
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