Merchandise Sales are Live!

We’ve recently re-opened our merch website! We have three amazing new general items (crew necks, pullovers, and jackets). Plus, items from last year and further in the past, so now is your chance to grab them if you missed out! Keep an eye out for any new merch that’ll come out this year, you never know what might come next! Click on the link below to check it out!

Direct Donations through Amazon!

Cal Poly Rose Float’s success depends on the support of our wonderful community of students, alumni, volunteers, faculty/staff, vendors, donors, and more. One of the many ways to support our team is donations through our Amazon Wishlists. You will find specific materials needed by our different departments that can be directly donated to our facilities. To access all lists from each department at once, sign into your Amazon account. Thank you for all of your support!

Presenting the 2025 Theme

for Cal Poly Rose Float!

On January 1, 2025, we’ll send down Nessie the Loch Ness Monster and her friends down Colorado Blvd. at the 136th Rose Parade.

We’re proud to release our 76th float for the 2025 Rose Parade “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs". With Nessie having a lakeside party with her friends - puffins, beavers, a Scottish terrier, and a Highland cow. Setting up the scene for the 2025 Rose Float theme of “Best Day Ever!”.

The float tells of a day when Nessie decides to step out of her shell and venture to the surface of the lake she calls home, she is pleased to meet a myriad of land animals! Although she is tentative at first, the land animals quickly welcome her into their lake day celebrations, culminating in the Best Day Ever! Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs captures the beginnings of a great friendship uniting the once shy Loch Ness monster with some eager creatures native to Scotland’s hills. 

This is a joint effort of both student teams from Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. With Cal Poly Rose Float being the only student-built and decorated entry in the Rose Parade with 62 awards won since 1949.

Check out the highlights!

“Cal Poly Pomona Ya Tiene Diseño de Carro Alegórico Para Desfile 2025” — Univision 34, 9/19 (11 p.m. broadcast)
Eche un vistazo a la cobertura sobre el tema revelado de Cal Poly Rose Float de su entrada de carrozas del Rose Parade 2025, “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs”, en la que el monstruo del lago Ness se une a amigos que viven en tierra firme en una fiesta junto al lago. La carroza, que mide 55 pies de largo, 21 pies de alto y 17 pies de ancho, se alinea con el tema del desfile “¡El mejor día de todos!” Desde su debut en el Desfile de las Rosas en 1949, el equipo ha ganado 62 premios. La carroza de 2024, “Shock n’ Roll: Powering the Musical Current”, recibió el premio Crown City Innovator Award por sus innovaciones tecnológicas.

“Parade Float Design Reveal” — KCAL News, 9/19 (10 p.m. broadcast) 
Take a look at some coverage on Cal Poly Rose Float’s revealed theme of their 2025 Rose Parade float entry, “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs,” featuring the Loch Ness Monster joining land-dwelling friends in a lakeside party. The float, measuring 55 feet long, 21 feet high, and 17 feet wide, aligns with the parade’s theme “Best Day Ever!” Since debuting in the Rose Parade in 1949, the team has earned 62 awards. The 2024 float, “Shock n’ Roll: Powering the Musical Current,” received the Crown City Innovator Award for technological innovations.

“Cal Poly Pomona’s Rose Parade float to star the Loch Ness Monster” — Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 9/19  
(Also published in San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, The Press-Enterprise, San Bernardino Sun, and Redlands Daily Facts) Nessie the Loch Ness Monster and her friends will join the 2025 Rose Parade thanks to Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “The inspiration for this float comes from that place of terrifying wonder, when you discover something new and end up enjoying it to the fullest,” parade team president and mechanical engineering senior Brooke Handschin, of Cal Poly Pomona, and San Luis Obispo team president and graduate student Collin Marfia said in a statement.

“Cal Poly Universities Unveil Whimsical Rose Parade Float Design” — Pasadena Now, 9/19 
The float’s construction is a collaborative effort between Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Pomona builds the front half of the float base (known as the pod), San Luis Obispo constructs the back, and design elements are shaped by both teams. The two halves are joined in Pomona later in the fall. Handschin and Marfia expressed their excitement for the project’s culmination: “When people see the float come down Colorado Boulevard, they’ll see a beautiful float with Nessie and her friends. We’ll see that too — but we’ll also see every step that our team went through to get there.” Also: “Cal Poly reveals 2025 Rose Parade design. It features one of the world’s most famous monsters” — San Luis Obispo Tribune, 9/18

“Cal Poly Rose Parade float inspired by Loch Ness” — Paso Robles News, 9/19 The concept for the 2025 float was suggested by Cal Poly alumna Holly Dufek, who served on the leadership team for the 2022 float, “Stargrazers.” “One of the desires the team had this year was to build a main, large, striking element,” said Marfia. “We wanted to create one large character who would steal the show.” Building the float is nearly a yearlong process, involving around 60 students from the two campuses. Tasks include building, adjusting, and testing mechanical systems, welding structural supports, and shaping design elements.

“Cal Poly prepares float for 2025 Rose Parade” — KCBX-FM 90.1 (Central Coast, Calif.), 9/19
"We really wanted to build something big and grand. This year we spent the past few years where we build a lot of characters that are kind of all equal size, that draw focus equally. But it's been a long time since we built something that was just big, and that really caught the eye,” Marfia said. Marfia said planning and construction is a year-long process but construction of “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs” is already underway.

“Central Coast college students helping to bring the Loch Ness monster to life for millions to see” — KCLU-FM 88.3 (Santa Barbara County), 9/18 
It may be September, but teams of students from the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona campuses have been busy working on a project which will be seen around the world on New Year’s Day. It will be the 76th Rose Parade entry for the two campuses. For months, they have been working on two sections of the float. Next month, the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo team will drive its half of the float to Pomona, where the pieces will be united.

“Cal Poly unveils design for 2025 Rose Parade float” — KSBY/NBC 6 (San Luis Obispo, Calif.), 9/18
Student builders on the Cal Poly Universities Rose Float Team have released their entry for the 136th Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1, 2025. The rendering depicts an animated lakeside party featuring a Loch Ness monster named Nessie. Puffins are pictured sliding down Nessie's fin. The work also includes beavers, a Scottish terrier riding a paddle boat, and a smiling Highland cow spinning in an intertube.

Cal Poly Rose Float is the only student-built float in the Rose Parade and has been invited to participate for 76 consecutive years. For questions or more information, contact: 

Josh D’Acquisto at (805) 756-1182 or at jdacquis@calpoly.edu or Cary Khatab at (909) 869-3204 or at kkhatab@cpp.edu

76th Cal Poly Rose Float

The theme of the 2025 Rose Parade is: “Best Day Ever”. The 2025 theme celebrates life’s best moments – those unexpected times that bring a smile, warm our hearts and fill us with joy. From a once-in-a-lifetime experience to the simplest pleasures, each is indelibly etched into our memory. Together, we celebrate where we’ve been and what we look forward to. It’s about family, friends, and community and what we have to celebrate – and to be thankful for. On New Year’s Day and throughout the year, let’s celebrate the times that make up our “Best Day Ever”! 

This will be Cal Poly Universities 76th entry and the winning concept will cruise down Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena, California as part of the 136th Rose Parade which will be held on Jan. 1, 2025.

The concept of the 76th float for 2025 will be revealed by both campuses in the fall.

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.

Future Events

TBA