To 350 million viewers on TV and several hundred thousand fans along the 5 1/2-mile route, the 114th Rose Parade looked Wednesday as it long has: an extravaganza of floats, big bands and exotic equestrian teams under sunny skies.
But those who manage the parade as it heads down Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard see it more like a military operation. Each New Year's, it is as if southwest Pasadena amasses its forces with the intention of advancing on the east side of the city, the parade's final destination.
Parade organizers sometimes speak of horses as a cavalry, carefully trained to speed up or slow down as needed. Bands are an instrument-toting infantry, more than 5,000 young people marching precisely at 2.5 miles per hour or 220 feet per minute. Floats become flower-bedecked tanks, always one step from breaking down. (The Red Cross even had 100 volunteers across the battlefield, tending to some of the 26 people who had to drop out.)
All told, some 8,000 people, from security to float drivers to volunteers on motorcycles, helped put on Wednesday's parade.
That is more troops than the U.S. used to drive the Taliban from Afghanistan.
"It is a little like moving an army," said Rick Jackson, chairman of the Tournament's operations committee, in an interview well before the parade. "You have a number of people, there are a whole bunch of moving parts, and you have to be precise in your timing."
For the third straight year, the Glendora-based sprinkler company, Rain Bird, won the top prize, the Sweepstakes trophy for most beautiful float. It featured waterfalls and wild animals on an African savanna. American Honda won the award for most spectacular float for an entry that showed a dreaming child's bed turned into a race car.
Parade and police officials said the crowds appeared slightly off from previous years. They cited security concerns, the weak economy and a lack of interest in this year's Rose Bowl game -- which had the smallest attendance in more than 50 years -- as explanations for any decline. There are no reliable attendance numbers.
In both timing and terminology, Wednesday's parade showed just how much is borrowed from the military.
Beginning Tuesday afternoon, floats were towed to the parade start from far-off barns in Duarte and Azusa along surface streets in Arcadia and San Marino in a "convoy." The Duarte convoy of 13 floats had to stop for a broken support wheel in the Korean immigration centennial float and several malfunctions on Subway Sandwiches' float, stretching the journey to more than seven hours.
