The 127th Rose Parade will be held Friday amid what Pasadena officials describe as “increased visible and non-visible enhanced security measures” along the 5 1/2-mile route.
“Recent events at home and abroad have put added attention on the safety efforts at the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game,” said Pasadena Assistant City Manager Steve Mermell, referring to mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino.
“However, each and every year, the city of Pasadena, working closely with its partners the Tournament of Roses and federal, state and local law enforcement undertake significant efforts to ensure public safety.”
There are “no known credible threats” to Pasadena or the parade, Pasadena Police Department Chief Phillip L. Sanchez said on Wednesday.
Parade-goers are advised to allow extra time to arrive, park and enter.
The parade’s theme is “Know Your Adventure,” and the grand marshal is Emmy- and Grammy-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
“I’ve never been to the parade in person, so this will be a new adventure for me,” Burns said in November when his selection was announced.
Burns was chosen in part because of his 2009 Public Broadcasting Service series, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” which won outstanding nonfiction series and outstanding writing for nonfiction programming Emmys.
The Pasadena Tournament of Roses and National Park Service have formed an alliance in honor of the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016, which prompted the parade’s theme.
The theme is a nod to “Find Your Park,” a two-year campaign in which the National Parks Service and National Parks Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, aim to increase awareness of and excitement about the National Park Service’s centennial celebration.
The parade will consist of 44 floats, 19 equestrian groups and 19 marching bands. The temperature at the 8 a.m. parade start is forecast to be 47 degrees, with winds of 10-15 mph and fair skies, according to the National Weather Service.
The floats include the first from an NBA team, the Los Angeles Lakers. Its title, “Every Second is an Adventure,” represents the importance of each moment in basketball, capturing the excitement of last-second shots and dramatic finishes, according to John Black, the team’s vice president of public relations.
The float will feature a large Lakers logo, a replica of the Larry O’Brien Trophy, presented annually to the NBA’s championship team, and an animated basketball circling a rim, “recreating the moment of ultimate suspense in the final seconds of a closely contested basketball game,” Black said.
The float will also include fireworks, streamers, 16 stars representing the team’s championships and jerseys of 10 of the top players in team history.
The Lakers float will feature more than 20,000 Florigene Moonlite carnations and Kerio roses, matching the team’s purple and gold colors, along with Calypso mokara orchids, cattleya orchids, blue vanda orchids, oncidium orchids, forsythia, gerbera daisies, Asiatic lilies and button chrysanthemums.
The parade will again include a float representing the ABC dating series “The Bachelor.” It will depict a romantic fantasy adventure date on an exotic tropical island.
Ben Higgins, the bachelor on the series’ 20th cycle, which begins Monday, will be on the float, along with Jade Roper and Tanner Tolbert, who became engaged on last summer’s “Bachelor in Paradise”; Lacy Faddoul, who married Marcus Grodd at the beginning of last summer’s “Bachelor in Paradise”; and past “The Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise” contestants Ashley Iaconetti and Samantha Steffen.
The women will soak in the working hot tub aboard the float.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will ride on the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board’s float.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Long Beach Mounted Police and National Park Service are among the parade’s equestrian groups.
The marching bands include the Los Angeles Unified School District ‘s All District High School Honor Band; Pasadena City College’s Tournament of Roses Honor Band & Herald Trumpets; Japan’s Toho High School Green Band; and the Aguilas Doradas Marching Band from Centro Escolar Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon in Puebla, Mexico.
The parade route begins at the corner of Green Street and Orange Grove Boulevard, heads north on Orange Grove Boulevard, turns east onto Colorado Boulevard, where the majority of the parade viewing takes place.
Near the end of the route, the parade turns north onto Sierra Madre Boulevard and concludes at Villa Street.
The floats can be viewed along Sierra Madre and Washington boulevards from 1-5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with last entry at 4 p.m.
Flintridge Preparatory School senior Erika Karen Winter is the 2016 Rose Queen. The members of her Royal Court are:
— Bryce Marie Bakewell, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy;
— Donaly Elizabeth Marquez, Blair High School;
— Natalie Breanne Hernandez-Barber, Alverno High School;
— Rachelle Chacal Renee Liu, San Marino High School;
— Regina Marche Pullens, Maranatha High School; and
— Sarah Sumiko Shaklan, La Canada High School.
Members of the court are chosen based on criteria including public speaking ability, poise, academic achievement and community involvement.
