Millions of people tune in each year to watch the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day, but what they don’t always get to see is all of the preparation that goes into it.
“The Rose Parade for a floral designer like me is like the holy grail,” Scot Wedgeworth, the lead floral designer for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s 2024 float, said. “We work our whole life with the hope to get here, most of us don’t get here, so for me to be here to be able to do this is a dream come true.”
The Rose Parade first started in 1890, and since then it has become a fan-favorite event that draws hundreds of volunteers in the days, weeks and months leading up to the big day.
“Everything when you’re up-close just looks like work, it looks like a hole that you have to put a flower in or a surface you have to cover with a petal, and then when you step back and look at the whole experience, it is just so moving and incredible,” Laura Manz, a volunteer, said.
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NBC 7’s Dana Williams was in Pasadena and has an inside look on what makes the Rose Parade so special, and how San Diego is represented in this year’s lineup. Watch the video above for the full story.
