15 miles east of Pasadena, the float journey to the Rose Parade takes on a life of its own

Instead of waking up to smell the coffee on New Year’s Eve morning, Johnny Magallanez was one of the first of hundreds to smell the roses.

Even though the convoy of 17 floats for the 136th Rose Parade didn’t begin its trek to Pasadena until much later in the day on Tuesday, wife Frances insisted the couple be in Irwindale early.

“She gets me up and says let’s go, let’s go!,” Magallanez said, who had just returned home from working a 16-hour shift. “No breakfast, no nothing.”

The couple from Ontario makes a full day of it, said Frances. As they have for the last four years.

They get to the Phoenix Decorating Company warehouse at 8 a.m. They watch as the first floats are rolled out into the open. They revel in the colors, the smell, the artistry.

Rose Parade 2025: Your guide to every float, band and equestrian unit, in order

Then, they go out to breakfast. After, they return to the floats and wait for the big event later in the day.

Every New Year’s Eve, more than a dozen floats make the 15-mile trip from Phoenix’s warehouse to the start of the Rose Parade route at Orange Grove and Colorado Boulevard.

By car, that trip would take about 20 minutes. For the floats, which crawl at just 2.5 to 3.5 miles per hour, the trip takes between five and six hours, said Chuck Hayes, sponsor relations for Phoenix. The convoy, he said, is coordinated by the Tournament of Roses and California Highway Patrol.

And, said Hayes, even though the convoy’s purpose is utilitarian– to get the floats from one location to another – over the last few years, it’s taken on a life of its own.

“I think people are fired up,” said Hayes of the growing popularity of the pre-parade event. “They want to do something on New Year’s Eve and they know the parade is coming by.”

From Hayes’s perspective, though, the only real way to see the parade is on New Year’s Day.

Sure, said Hayes, people get to see the “purity of the float” the evening before, but they’re missing out on how the floats are showcased in the actual parade.

“There’s so much more to it,” Hayes said.

The parade entries are not rolled out in their full glory the night before because they must measure no more than 16-feet, 6-inches tall – the height of traffic signals they have to fit underneath.

Some of the floats are much taller than that. For example, Kaiser Permanente’s entry “More Healthy Days for More Healthy Years” measures at about 28-feet high, said Hayes.

In addition to not seeing some of the floats at full height, said Hayes, there’s no animation, there’s no live music, there are no human riders.

“You’re also missing great bands and great equestrian acts,” said Hayes.

But many waiting Dec. 31 at the corner of Irwindale Avenue and Ornelas Street were happy with attending only the pre-parade.

Ting Yang was with her mother Shun Huang. The Baldwin Park resident has been coming to the “parade before the parade” since about 2016, she said.

“I like all the flowers and the design elements,” she said.

This year, to get a better feel for the real deal, Yang went earlier in the day to TV corner at Orange Grove and Colorado and snapped photos of the massive grandstands and colorful banners.

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Universal Filmed Entertainment Group is working with longstanding Rose Parade float-making company Phoenix Decorating to bring “Wicked” to life. The float will be seen in the 2025 Rose Parade in Pasadena during the first half of the televised broadcast happening on Jan. 1, 2025. It is in spot 28 of the 83 floats, equestrian units and bands that make up the parade. “Wicked” is now available to rent and purchase on digital. The second film, titled “Wicked: For Good,” is set to come out on Nov. 21, 2025. : Lisa Jacobs, Correspondant, SCNG #wicked #pasadena #roseparade #roseparade2025 @Wicked Movie

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It wasn’t exactly like being there, but she got a bit of an idea of what it might be like, she said.

Grace Alba, who sat curbside with her 7-year-old daughter Anais Lainez, was emphatic about not going to the Rose Parade itself.

f“It’s so packed!,” Alba said. “Here, you get to see it up close and really enjoy it.”

Johnny Magallanez agreed. The Rose Parade itself was too crowded for him and his wife.

Indeed, Hayes said, the pre-parade has taken on a life of its own with crowds growing larger each year.

“We appreciate their enthusiasm,” Hayes said of the hundreds of people who line Irwindale Avenue.

“It’s great that people have the passion about the Rose Parade to do this on New Year’s Eve.”

And all that, said Hayes, is a positive message about how important the Rose Parade is to Southern California.

Could that zeal transform into a new New Year’s tradition?

For Frances Magallanez, who threw her arms up wide in a sweeping gesture, it already had.

“THIS is my parade,” Frances said. “This is my New Year’s.”