While the return of the Rose Parade is seen by many as a cheerful respite from two painful pandemic years, it is clouded by a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
last year, the whimsical, flower-filled procession returned to Pasadena on Saturday.at 8 a.m. Pacific, with actor and television host LeVar Burton serving as grand marshal. The theme is “Dream. Achieve. Believe.”
“All the planning that we have done has positioned us well to be able to host the Rose Parade in a safe and healthy way,” said David Eads, executive director of the Tournament of Roses. Along the rest of the 5.5-mile route, where people can just walk up and watch, vaccination and negative test results will not be checked.
Just before sunrise, Leslie Lemus and her family plopped their camping chairs along Colorado Boulevard in the Pasadena Playhouse District. Sullivan watched the parade on television as a child but said it’s extra-special seeing it in person. “I thought there would be more people last night for the New Years celebration, and I thought I’d wake up to rows of chairs from what I’d read,” she said. “I’m really surprised.”
The company’s float is enormous: 35 feet tall and 55 feet long. Van Slyke said it weighs about 24 tons, with 12 moving parts and 130,000 flowers.
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