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This is the first day of August!

While many of us have been on vacation, planning a vacation, relaxing, and complaining about the heat, the people associated with the Rose Parade have been working nonstop on the 2024 Rose Parade.

Doing what you ask? Well, float testing is underway at Phoenix Decorating Company in Irwindale. The historic float building company is responsible for several floats you will see January 1, 2024, including the one for the 2024 Royal Court.

Phoenix Decorating Company has opened its website for volunteers needed to handle the dry decoration of its Rose Parade Floats.

The dry decoration schedule begins Saturday, December 2, 2023 and runs through Saturday, December 23, 2023. The floral decoration schedule begins Tuesday, December 26, 2023 and runs through Sunday, December 3, 2023.

Schedule details are on phoenixdeco.com/volunteer.

To learn more about Phoenix Decorating Company, visit phoenixdeco.com.

By the way, applications open today for the 2024 Pasadena Royal Court! Application information can be found on the following two websites:

The city of Torrance has approved the conceptual design of West High School student Jodie Cheng for the city’s 135th Rose Parade float.

Titled “Lyrical Call of Nature,” Cheng’s design shows baby birds, who are blind for the first few days after hatching, constantly calling for their mother. While responding to their calls, the mother bird creates “a beautiful song found in nature,” Cheng wrote in the description of her drawing.

Cheng’s design was among 16 submitted to the TRFA last fall when the group opened its design contest to students in all five high schools in the Torrance Unified School District.

After reviewing the designs, the Tournament of Roses Association Board of Directors and Tim Estes, president of Fiesta Parade Floats, the company that builds Torrance’s entry, unanimously selected Cheng’s design in March, according to city documents. The drawing and the subsequent rendering created by Fiesta Parade Floats were both approved by the Citizen Development and Enrichment Committee on May 18, 2023.

To see the work of Fiesta Parade Floats, known as “the most awarded float builder in Rose Parade History”, visit fiestaparadefloats.com.

The theme of the January 1, 2024, Rose Parade is Celebrating a World of Music. To learn more about the New Year’s Day celebration, click here.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact Gayle Anderson at 323-460-5732, email Gayle at Gayle.Anderson@KTLA.com, Facebook: Gayle Anderson, Instagram: KTLAChannel5Gayle and Twitter: KTLA5Gayle.

This aired on KTLA 5 News on August 1, 2023.