Thank you for Submitting your designs for the 2027 Cal Poly Rose Float!
Thank you for all the time and effort everyone has put in.
“The 2027 theme celebrates the simple joy of belonging—that feeling that you’re always welcome, no matter who or where you are. It’s the warmth of family—whether related or chosen, the love of good friends, and the welcoming embrace of community.”
Thank you to everyone that submitted their ideas for our 2027 Float. We appreciate all the time and effort that you put in, and for making this choice such a hard decision for all of us.
Please stay tuned for the unveiling of Cal Poly Rose Float’s 78th entry to the Tournament of Roses!
The theme of the 2027 Rose Parade is: “WELCOME”.
The 2027 theme celebrates the simple joy of belonging—that feeling that you’re always welcome, no matter who or where you are. It’s the warmth of family—whether related or chosen, the love of good friends, and the welcoming embrace of community.
For questions or more information, contact:
Josh D’Acquisto at (805) 756-1182 or jdacquis@calpoly.edu
Cary Khatab at (909) 869-3204 or kkhatab@cpp.edu
Follow the Rose Float Facebook, Rose Float Instagram, and Rose Float Twitter for news and contest updates.
CAL POLY ROSE FLOAT AWARDED SWEEPSTAKES!
SWEEPSTAKES!
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SWEEPSTAKES! -
On January 1st, 2026, our 77th parade entry Jungle Jumpstart made its long-awaited journey along Colorado Blvd. at the 137th Rose Parade! For the first time in our program’s history, our float was awarded the prestigious Sweepstakes trophy. Sweepstakes in an all-encompassing accolade that recognizes excellence in design, floral presentation and entertainment, and is considered to be the highest honor a parade float can achieve.
THE ROAD TO SWEEPSTAKES!
TEAMWORK! This first half of the year, Rose Float has hard at work imagining, developing, and preparing for this year's Pasadena Tournament of Roses Rose Parade. The selection of this year's float concept has been followed up with several vital meetings between SLO and Pomona. At these meetings, our departments have been achieving their own goals with Design and Construction developing the physical shape of the float, Operations showing off their marketing skills designing new merch, and Decorations planting and harvesting some of the materials that will bring the float to life!
What is Cal Poly Rose FLoat?
Cal Poly Rose Float is a joint effort between Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo universities to enter a student-built float in the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association’s Rose Parade. Both Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are the two designated Polytechnic universities within the 23-campus California State University System (the largest four-year public university system in the U.S.).
Since 1949, Cal Poly Rose Float has continuously designed, built, financed, and decorated the float-entry in the annual Parade. Over the last 74 years, Cal Poly Rose Float has been awarded a total of 61 awards/trophies (about 83% of all participating years).
More importantly, Cal Poly Rose Float has been a tremendous leader in the introduction of new technology to the Parade. This includes the first use of:
Hydraulics for animation in 1968.
Computer-controlled animation in 1978.
Fiber optics in 1982.
Animated decorations in 2014.
Color-changing floral effect in 2017.
This program is one of the longest consecutive running self-built entries in the parade, as well as the only "student self-built" float designed and constructed entirely by students year-round on two campuses. They compete against professional float builders who manufacture entries for sponsors, many of them with development budgets approaching $1 million. This tradition continues today and marks the partnership between the two campuses.
VIDEO: It's a 130-year-old tradition - the Rose Parade on New Year's Day.
VIDEO: Learn how California State University students from different campuses and majors worked together over a 13-month span to create an award-winning 70th entry in the 2018 Rose Parade Tournament of Roses, an annual affair that attracted millions of worldwide spectators.
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