Tournament of Roses Parade, 2005

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When Las Vegas looked around for a spectacular way to open its Centennial year, it settled on an announcement as big and colorful as the town itself -- a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade!

On January 1, 2005, one of the biggest floats to wind its way down Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena was the one dedicated to Las Vegas' 100th birthday. The cost of the float was underwritten by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau. And for good reason.

There's hardly a marketing activity anywhere in the United States that compares with the Tournament of Roses. The television audience in the U.S. alone is 50 million viewers; the spectator audience is estimated at 1 million. And while no one knows how many international viewers are watching, the event is televised to 28 countries around the world. All these viewers are potential Las Vegas visitors.

The Las Vegas Centennial float was built by Fiesta Parade Floats in Monrovia and decorated by volunteers from Girl Scout troops throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Typically, decorating crews of 40 - 60 people work eight hours a day for three or four weekend days staring in mid-November and ending at Christmas.

The 2005 float was the first Las Vegas float since the early 1950s when Las Vegas was in the midst of a hotel building boom and anxious to send the message that the town was open for both business and pleasure.

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Girl Scouts from across the California Southland volunteered time to decorate Las Vegas' Centennial float in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Click images for enlargements.

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