The Tournament of Roses Parade, better known as the Rose Parade, is "America's New Year Celebration", a festival of flower-covered floats, marching bands, equestrians and a college football game on New Year's Day (but moved to Monday if New Year's Day falls on a Sunday), produced by the non-profit Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association.
The annual parade was first held January 1, 1890 in Pasadena, California. Today, the Rose Parade is watched in person by hundreds of thousands of spectators on the parade route, and is broadcast on multiple television networks in the United States (ABC holds the official contract, but because it is a public parade, other networks are allowed to produce their own coverage). It is seen by millions more on television worldwide in more than 200 international territories and countries. The Rose Bowl college football game was added in 1902 to help fund the cost of staging the parade.
In 2010, the tournament announced that Honda is the presenting sponsor and the parade is known as the Rose Parade presented by Honda. The Tournament of Roses Parade has followed the same route mainly following Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena's main thoroughfare and a segment of the former US 66, for many decades. The day before the parade, the entire environs of the neighborhood streets south of the intersection of Orange Grove and Colorado Blvds. are sealed off and reserved for the massive parade marshaling of the dozens of floats, bands, equestrian units and other elements. This staging area is referred to as the "Formation Area" and managed by the Formation Area Committee.
