Students pack up Cal Poly Rose Parade float for transport to Pomona
‘Stargrazers’ float will take shape over the next 10 weeks
– Cal Poly students are already thinking about New Year’s Day and the 133rd Tournament of Roses Rose Parade – the 73rd time their float has rolled down Colorado Boulevard in the storied Pasadena parade.
On Thursday, students loaded their half of the float for the drive down to California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. A symbol of the partnership between the two campuses is the float’s chassis, the front and back halves of which will soon be bolted together to officially unite both the float and the teams. Cal Poly works on the rear chassis in San Luis Obispo while their Pomona counterparts prepare the front chassis.
“Stargrazers” will take shape over the next 10 weeks. It is the only student-built float in the parade and one of only a handful of entries not built by professional companies.
Since 1948, Cal Poly universities in San Luis Obispo and Pomona have teamed up to produce the only student-built float in the annual parade. Between 1938 and 1965, the schools operated under a unified administration. In 1966, the campuses became independent, but the students have continued the Learn by Doing tradition started in 1948 of producing an entry for the popular parade that is seen in person by hundreds of thousands of spectators and viewed by millions more via numerous television networks and international broadcasts. Since Cal Poly’s first float — hastily assembled in 90 days for $258 — won the Award of Merit in 1949, the entries have grown in size and sophistication. They have amassed nearly 60 awards — including the 2020 Director Award for the most outstanding artistic design and use of floral and non-floral materials.
“Stargrazers” aims to exemplify the 2022 theme of “Dream. Believe. Achieve.” The theme of the 133rd Rose Parade celebrates education’s ability to open doors, open minds and change lives.
The float mixes the whimsy of the nursery rhyme with the hardworking atmosphere of a college campus. On parade day as it travels the 5.5-mile route, the audience will see a cow jumping over a 15-foot moon, the bovine held aloft by a jet pack made of metal milk cans and other farm materials. In Cal Poly’s take on the six-line rhyme, three cows, along with their colleagues — the cat, a little dog, the dish and the spoon — are seen working to achieve the celebrated moo-n jump.
The cows also represent the float-building process, according to the two student teams. All year, while the bovine team has perfected its jet-pack technology, Cal Poly Rose Float students have been building the very frame to hoist the 600-pound cow into the air. The float also depicts numerous other stages of building: A brown cow tests one of the jet packs, while another wearing glasses and an apron is building a jet pack.
Once the two halves are joined, elements can be attached to the float, and after foaming, color is added. During design week, students work around the clock to perfect the mechanics of the design before the float moves to Pasadena in late December and the focus shifts to floral embellishments.
Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, students and hundreds of volunteers will work feverishly to decorate every inch of the float with flowers and other natural materials before the entry is unveiled to millions of viewers around the world as a tribute to Learn by Doing as “Stargrazers” rolls through the streets of Pasadena on Jan. 1, 2022.
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