These photos were taken Saturday, December 29 at Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale, CA. After I did my last report on the preparation of floats for the 124th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade (see http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-903990) I was put in touch with the Vice President of The Pollack PR Marketing Group, who invited me to return to Fiesta Floats to photograph the decorating of the floats, which began the day after Christmas. I decided that I would give the volunteers a few days to get some of the flowers and other organics added to help enhance the photos a little.
Fiesta Parade Floats built 10 of the entries to this year's Tournament of Roses Parade and nine of them were in the warehouse, with flowers and volunteers covering each of them. The 10th float, which will carry the Tournament of Roses Queen and her court, was already at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.
During the vetting process of my previous iReport I was asked a couple questions that I did not have the answers for, so I took the opportunity to gather more information.
A common question I was asked about was the cost of building a Rose Parade float. The prices can range from $50,000 - 250,000 and even more for the bigger floats that have lots of animation. The average price for an award winning float is $250,000. This includes the design and building of the float as well as the flowers. The application of the flowers and other organics is done by volunteers. When you look through the photos and see the intricate designs that had to be added, one seed at a time, you cannot help but be appreciative of the work the volunteers do.
Another common question I was asked had to deal with the design and construction of the float. Professional float builders, such as Fiesta Parade Floats, do the design and construction of the float based on the theme presented by the Tournament of Roses, with the final design being approved by the float sponsors.
You can see all the photos from my last visit to Fiesta Parade Floats at http://www.gotbaddog.com/decorating-fiesta-floats/. You will see the final results on Tuesday, January 1, 2013. I suspect you will enjoy them; a lot of work went into them.