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Cal Poly students make plans for Rose Parade float

The float will be called "Stargrazers" and will premier on New Year's Day, 2022.
Stargrazers Rendering[82] Cal Poly 9-17-21.jpg
Posted at 2:24 PM, Sep 17, 2021
and last updated 2021-09-17 17:24:09-04

Cal Poly students have unveiled plans for their Rose Parade float that will debut in 2022.

The design is nursery-rhyme inspired, featuring characters from the "Hey, Diddle, Diddle" rhyme including a cat, a fiddle and a cow jumping over the moon.

In a departure from the poem, this jumping cow will be wearing a jet pack.

The float, named "Stargrazers", is a collaborative effort by students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona. 20 students represent each school.

The team has been building the float's frame and testing its jet pack technology. According to plans, the 600-lb. cow will jump over a 15-ft. moon.

The design is an answer to the 2022 Rose Parade theme: "Dream. Believe. Achieve."

The final result will be a product of trial and error, and the students said it will be a labor of love.

The front half of the float, designed by Cal Poly Pomona, and the back half of the float, designed by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, will be joined in mid-october.

Avi McManis, vice president of the San Luis Obispo team, says parade viewers will be seeing the polished result.

"By the time the float goes down the parade route, the average viewer will have no idea it took hundreds of volunteer hours, tons of steel and thousands and thousands of flowers," McManus said.

The float, which will debut on New Year's Day 2022, will travel 5.5 miles down Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena.

It will be the universities' 73rd entry to the annual event and the 133rd year of the parade.