The Cal Poly Rose Float team has revealed its design for the 2023 Tournament of Roses Parade.
The parade's theme is "Turning the Corner," which is meant to symbolize the positive change and unlimited potential that each new year can bring. Cal Poly's float will be called "Road to Reclamation."
The float will portray giant snails, mushrooms and colorful fungi "transforming a dead tree branch into a catalyst for new life."
It will be 23 feet tall and 55 feet long with a large purple snail atop a 16-foot-high mushroom at the end of the float. It will also include two other giant snails along with mushrooms, ladybugs, moss, lichen and other living things that make up a forest floor community.
“A nurse log serves as a vital part of a forest ecosystem,” explained Annie Doody, Cal Poly Rose Float president. “It serves as the basis of a new environment as a community comes together to create something new... Our float represents rebirth and second chances, as well as the magic and wonder that come with the endless possibilities of a new start.”
This will be Cal Poly's 74th entry in the Rose Parade.
Every year, students at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo work with students at Cal Poly Pomona to create the float. They're currently working on building the base of the float -- half in San Luis Obispo and the other half in Pomona.
In October, the San Luis Obispo half will be transported to Pomona where the two pieces will be joined together and students will begin working to add the design elements.
In December, the float will be moved to Pasadena. Hundreds of students and volunteers will decorate the float with flowers and other natural materials in preparation for the parade on January 2.
Since their first parade entry in 1949, the Cal Poly Rose Float team has won 61 awards, including the Animation Award for their "Stargrazers" float in the 2022 Rose Parade.
