In a ‘peek before the pedals,’ unfinished Rose Parade floats get a test drive in Azusa
Anticipation for the annual Rose Parade is ramping up — and it starts with a test drive.
Artistic Entertainment Services (AES) test drove four floats on a short route in Azusa early Saturday morning, in preparation for the 137th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on Jan. 1, 2026.
AES is one of the companies responsible for building 13 floats this year, according to AES spokesperson Stefan Pollack, who has been involved in 24 parades.
The four floats driven on Saturday were: Explore Louisiana; One Legacy Donate Life; Kindness is Free, by the Boys and Girls Club of the West San Gabriel Valley and Eastside; and the UPS Store.
“Just like when you go buy a car, you take it for a test drive — we’re taking the floats for a test drive,” Pollack said. “We go about a mile down the street here in Azusa and again, we’re looking for whether the floats are road ready.”
Pasadena Tournament of Roses President Mark Leavens announced the theme “The Magic in Teamwork” in February as “a tribute to the strength, resilience and connection that arise when we come together, proving that the magic in teamwork is not just an idea but a reality we live every day.”
@the.socal.local Anticipation for the annual Rose Parade is ramping up — and it starts with a test drive. Artistic Entertainment Services (AES) test drove four floats on a short route in Azusa early Saturday morning, in preparation for the 137th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on Jan. 1, 2026. The four floats driven on Saturday were: Explore Louisiana; One Legacy Donate Life; Kindness is Free, by the Boys and Girls Club of the West San Gabriel Valley and Eastside; and the UPS Store. See more at the link in our bio. : Camelia Heins, SCNG #roseparade #2026 #southerncalifornia #pasadena #socal
Days after the 2025 Rose Parade, a series of fires broke out affecting areas including Palisades and Altadena, where more than 16,000 structures were destroyed. Volunteer efforts and mutual-aid groups in Southern California quickly stepped up to provide support for survivors.
“[The theme] really is representative, quite frankly, of our times,” Pollack said. “It is a time-honored tradition to come out and decorate floats and volunteers come in from all over the world to participate and experience it.”
Outside AES’ facility in Azusa, the early sun was blazing as drivers slowly navigated each metal chassis down residential roads with AES staff and Tournament of Roses inspectors keeping a close eye. Some local residents stopped to take pictures, while others continued walking their dogs, seemingly used to the neighborhood test drive.
Jody Gerstner, the chief inspector for Tournament of Roses, has been inspecting floats for 23 years and spoke to the technical aspects he’s looking for during these test drives.
“Everybody on my team has multiple decades of experience with these floats,” Gerstner said. “Not only are we looking for items that are documented in our float manual, or our code of construction, we’re using our common sense when we look at these to ensure anything that seems out of place or amiss in the wiring, the hoses of piping, welding and construction quality, we will call it out.”
On the road, each float has a driver and an observer responsible for driving, navigating turns, paying attention to hand signals and managing any animation. It’s Brian Foxvog’s sixth year driving for AES; he drove the “Explore Louisiana” float with his father observing next to him during the short route.
“It’s similar to driving a car,” Foxvog said. “But it’s more like driving a tractor because of the way the steering and the throttle work.”
Being involved in the parade is a deep-rooted family tradition and he “loves” it, Foxvog said. He and his father have been involved for over 30 years and his mother has been doing it for over 45 years.
“There is no bigger community event than the Tournament of Roses,” AES spokesperson Pollack said. “It started as a way to kind of bring the community together and talk about the rich traditions and the beautiful area that we call home here in Southern California. And this year, I think that that teamwork theme couldn’t be more on message of bringing community back together and making sure that we have a really resilient and thriving community here in Southern California.”