The 136th Rose Parade is set to kick off at 8 a.m. PST on New Year’s Day and roll along 5.5 miles of Pasadena streets before an anticipated crowd of hundreds of thousands.
The parade will be televised by networks including ABC, NBC, KTLA and Univision, and streamed on platforms including YouTube, Fubo and Pluto TV.
Celebrating this year’s parade theme of “Best Day Ever,” dozens of floats, marching bands and equestrian groups will traverse Colorado Boulevard through the heart of Old Pasadena. The parade will be followed by the Rose Bowl game between the Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes
The parade is set to begin hours after a pickup truck driver plowed through a crowd in New Orleans’ French Quarter, killing at least 10 people and injuring at least 30 in a suspected terrorist attack.
A man drove into the crowd around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday along Bourbon Street, which was bustling with New Year’s Eve revelers and visitors in town for the Sugar Bowl College football game at the nearby Superdome later in the day. New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver “was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
Lisa Derderian, a spokeswoman for the City of Pasadena, told the Times early Wednesday that the Rose Parade route is lined with “very robust vehicle barriers” and that more than 1,000 law enforcement officers are in the city.
“This is a top-rated federal event, and it has been for many years, so we have federal, state, county and city resources that have been in Pasadena for several days and will remain through the end of the parade and the game tonight,” Derderian said.
“We want to ensure the public that we have every preventive measure in place,” she added. “We’re confident we are prepared for this parade and this game, but with that in mind, we also feel for the state of Louisiana what they’re going through.”
During last year’s Rose Parade, a woman rammed her vehicle into one of the barricades along Colorado Boulevard, Derderian said.
“She could have easily injured or killed people,” Derderian said. “She had some past history of illness, was told not to cross a line, didn’t listen, revved her engine, and continued driving. The barriers stopped her.”
This year’s Rose Parade grand marshal is Billie Jean King, the tennis icon and gender equality activist who won 20 Wimbledon titles, 39 Grand Slam titles, and drew an audience of 90 million people worldwide for the televised 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” match in which she beat onetime national tennis champion Bobby Riggs.
When she was announced as the parade’s grand marshal in October, King, a Long Beach native, said it “is like a dream come true.”
“As a child, the annual Tournament of Roses Parade was a big deal in our home,” said King, 81. “We used to talk about it all year long. … We looked forward to it every single year.”
The 2021 Rose Parade was canceled for the first time since World War II because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned to a smaller crowd in 2022, but attendance has been growing in the years since.
Candy Carlson, a spokeswoman for the Tournament of Roses, said in a statement to The Times that about 750,000 people lined the route in 2024, compared with about 700,000 in 2022, indicating a “strong return” to pre-pandemic crowd sizes.
“The consistent growth in attendance underscores the Rose Parade’s enduring appeal and the joy it brings to our community and visitors from around the world,” she said. “We’re confident this year’s parade will continue to draw a vibrant and engaged audience.”
The Rose Bowl, which is now the College Football Playoff quarterfinal, will be broadcast nationally on ESPN, with pregrame festivities beginning at 1 p.m. PST and kickoff scheduled for 2 p.m.
