The 136th Rose Parade has begun and is marching 5.5 miles through the streets of Pasadena ahead of an expected New Year's Day crowd of hundreds of thousands.
The show is televised on networks including ABC, NBC, KTLA and Univision, and airs on platforms including YouTube, Fubo and Pluto TV.
Celebrating this year's parade theme of “The Best Day Ever,” dozens of floats, marching bands and equestrian teams will make their way down Colorado Boulevard in the heart of Old Pasadena. The parade will be followed by the Rose Bowl game between the Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The demonstration began hours after a truck driver plowed into a crowd in New Orleans' French Quarter, killing at least 10 people and injuring at least 30 in a suspected terrorist attack.
A man drove into the crowd around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday on Bourbon Street, which was bustling with New Year's Eve revelers and downtown visitors for the Sugar Bowl college football game at the nearby Superdome. New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver “was determined to cause the carnage and damage he caused.”
Lisa Derderian, spokeswoman for the city of Pasadena, told The Times early Wednesday that the Rose Parade route is lined with “strong traffic barriers” and that there are more than 1,000 law enforcement officers in the city.
Crowds line Colorado Boulevard early Wednesday as the 136th Rose Bowl Parade is expected.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“This is a great corporate event, and it has been for many years, so we have state, county, state and city resources that have been in Pasadena for several days and will stay until the end of the show and the game tonight. ,” said Derderian.
“We want to assure the public that we have all the protection measures in place,” he added. “We hope that we are ready for this show and this game, but with that in mind, we sympathize with the situation in Louisiana with what they are going through.”
During last year's Rose Parade, a woman crashed her car into one of the barriers along Colorado Boulevard, Derderian said.
“He could have easily injured or killed people,” Derderian said. “He had a history of mental illness, he was told not to cross the line, he didn't listen, he revved the engine, and continued driving. The barriers stopped him.”
Tournament of Roses officials said in a statement Wednesday that they “express our deepest sympathies to the people of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans following today's tragic events.”
“We stand in solidarity with the rest of the country at this difficult time.”
For the fourth year in a row, the state of Louisiana has a float in the Rose Parade. This year's float, called “Louisiana Saturday Night,” features a giant alligator wearing a beaded necklace and carrying a Cajun dance hall and pots of boiled seafood on its back.
Mark Garcia, a retired Contra Costa County firefighter who camped overnight along Colorado Boulevard with his family, said that while he was dismayed by the news in New Orleans, he had “never felt safer” than he did on the Rose Parade route Wednesday morning. .
“There were two or three officers patrolling the ward all night,” said Garcia, 58, adding that he was comforted by the “heavy police presence.”
Bryce Murphy, left, and his sister Charlotte Murphy of Rancho Cucamonga stopped by a few hours before the rally on their phone, accompanied by their grandmother Roseann Ochoa.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Garcia, who lives in Danville, attended the fair for the second year in a row. He left his campsite at 10:30am on Tuesday morning, made friends with the other campers and was very happy – despite only getting three hours of sleep.
“It's just a great show to bring a lot of people together. Everyone is happy,” said Garcia. “It's a very good event. It's really hard work.”
A few blocks away, Angel Gutierrez, of Pasadena, gathered with her family at a makeshift fire before the parade began.
Gutierrez claimed his campsite again Tuesday morning, saying he'd rather camp day and night — even in cold nighttime weather — than shell out up to $125 each for big seats that can fill up weeks in advance.
“I don't want to say it, but the stands are for boring people,” Gutierrez said with a laugh. “Here, you get all the information, talk to different people.”
Gutierrez has been coming to the fair for nearly two decades — and her 10-year-old son, Rony Plascencia, has been attending since he was a baby.
“This is about starting the year off right,” said Rony.
He added: “My New Year's resolution is for homeless people to find a home.”
The grand marshal of this year's Rose Parade is Billie Jean King, a tennis and gender equality activist who won 20 Wimbledon titles, 39 Grand Slam titles, and drew an audience of 90 million people worldwide for the show. on television in 1973 which was called “Battle of the Sexes” which was in 1973. defeated former national tennis champion Bobby Riggs.
When he was announced as the parade's grand marshal in October, King, a Long Beach native, said it was “like a dream come true.”
“When I was a kid, the annual Roses Parade was a big deal in our house,” said King, 81. “We used to talk about it all year. … We looked forward to it every year.”
The 2021 Rose Parade has been canceled for the first time since World War II due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned to a smaller crowd in 2022, but attendance has been growing over the years.
Candy Carlson, a spokeswoman for the Tournament of Roses, said in a statement sent to The Times that about 750,000 people will follow the route in 2024, compared to about 700,000 in 2022, showing a “strong return” to pre-pandemic crowd sizes.
“The steady increase in attendance underscores the enduring appeal of the Rose Parade and the joy it brings to our community and visitors from around the world,” he said. “We hope that this year's show will continue to attract an enthusiastic and engaged audience.”
The Rose Bowl, now the quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff, will be televised nationally on ESPN, with pregame festivities beginning at 1pm PST and kickoff scheduled for 2pm.
Along the parade route, Susan and Leo Caviness, who traveled from Ohio to watch their son perform with the Ohio State University Marching Band, said they weren't bothered by the 50-degree morning in Pasadena — which, for many Southern Californians, is. to go, it is suitable as a cold.
“I'm actually hot!” Susan Caviness said with a laugh.
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