2025 Rose Parade

The first Rose Parade was held on Jan. 1st, 1890 and was organized by the Pasadena Valley Hunt Club. It was led by Charles Frederick Holder who also was the first sponsor of the tournament of roses. He noticed even in the midst of winter there was an abundance of flowers. He promoted clubs to decorate their carriages (now floats) with flowers. “In New York, people are buried in snow. Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let’s hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise,” said Holders during the club meeting. Till this day participants decorate their floats with flowers. This year the 2025 Rose Parade will be the 136th annual parade. The theme of the Parade was “Best Day Ever!” and celebrated life’s joyful moments. The Parade began at 8a.m and traveled five and half miles down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California. The Rose Parade’s opening spectacular was presented by Honda. Canadian singer Kiesza and Aloe  Blacc, the American soul singer, opened the 136th tournament of Rose Parade and was backed up with 20 dancers in shimmering reflective costumes. Aloe Blacc performed with trampoline wall performers and glowing light tubes. This was Honda’s 63rd year as a Rose Parade participant and partner. 

There were 83 participants. Starting with the U.S Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard and West Coast Composite Band; Boys and Girls Clubs of West San Gabriel and Eastside; Fresno State Building Marching band; Kaiser Permanente; and Tournament of Rose Grand Marshal Billie Jean king, who won 39 Grand Slam tennis. Up next was San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, The Valley Hunt Club, One Legacy Foundation, and LAUSD All District High School Honor Band, City of Burbank, Banda de Muscia Herberto Lopez Colegio Jose Daniel Crespo, Sierra Madre Rose Float Association, Jackson State University, The New Buffalo Soldiers, and Visit Mississippi. These are just 19 of the 64 most participants that are not mentioned.

We decided to take a deep dive into the 31st participants which was the Pasadena City Tournaments of Roses Honor Band. One participant of the band was a Pasadena City college student named Maxwell Yep. He is an instrumentalist who plays the trombone. He explains that the band played the songs “When the Saints go marching in,” “Saturday in the park,” “ The national game” and “Everything’s coming up Roses.” He decided to participate in the Rose Parade to get experience considering that it’s not something that everyone gets to experience. He also finds that the experience was worth it. Before the Parade started Maxwell felt nervous but more excited than anything. “I felt great. I was super focused on what I was doing and occasionally I would look at the crowd,” Maxwell explained. Once the parade was over he felt good and happy with the performance he gave out. “What I enjoyed about the parade was being able to show what we’ve been working on for the past few months with our songs as well as the overall energy from the crowd” as he shares what he enjoys about the parade. 

Next we have Ashley Santiago who was one of the band’s color guard back banner lines. The banner line consists of 12 students from many high schools from all around and current members of the lancer color guard. She chose to participate in the parade because during high school she had  done only a few parades, nothing big. However she had a lot of fun doing them. This made her wonder how much fun it would be to do the Rose Parade, one of the biggest parades, after a field season with her guard. Before the parade she didn’t feel nervous until she started reaching the crowd. However she was also excited. During the parade she felt so happy and excited in the moments of performing. “After the parade I was so happy and proud that all the hard work and many days of practice paid off because it was one of the best things I got to do and I’m hoping to be able to do it again next year,” Ashley stated reflecting on her performance. She explains with such excitement “What I really enjoyed about the parade was seeing or at least hearing my friends and family who came out to watch it. I also really loved the fact that the crowd no matter where we were had so much energy it really gave me energy to keep going.”