Fiesta Parade Floats President Tim Estes was shouting directions to his crew outside his Irwindale facility.And, unless you are driving a float or tweaking an engine gear on this mid-December Saturday morning, Estes has no time for you.Tournament of Roses officials descend upon the massive warehouse to put floats upwards of 55 feet long through their mechanical paces.
Don McMillan of Simi Valley is the observer on the float from the state of Louisiana. He gives the directions to the driver in the back of the float who can literally see none of the parade route. Photographed on Saturday Dec.17, 2022, in Irwindale, California. Tim Estes, president of Fiesta Parade Floats, walks in front of the Chinese American float as Tournament of Roses officials inspect five of the Fiesta Floats’ 2020 lineup of Rose Parade Floats during an early morning test run in Irwindale on Saturday November 9, 2019. “I started decorating floats in the Rose Parade when I was 8-years-old,” Estes said. “That was 56 years ago. It’s been my life.
And, thankfully, local health directors and politicians are no longer giving weekly health updates on television, let alone daily ones.“We say turning the corner, but we’re at a very high point right now with numbers,” said Lisa Derderian, PIO for the City of Pasadena, which has its own health department.
Derderian said people still need to take precautions, especially indoors, and in crowded outdoor locations, such as cramming onto curbsides watching the parade. As health officials prepare for New Year’s and Rose gatherings, veteran float aficionados like Estes from Fiesta floats aren’t really that concerned about the physical mechanics of “turning the corner.”