Here are some pictures of the floats from the Grand Floral Parade that were on display along Naito Parkway on Sunday, June 8, 2008, as part of the Rose Festival. Floats are not really my thing, but I was there and they are pretty impressive. My favorites are "Year of the Dinosaur," "Let's Fly," and "More Precious Than Gold."
“Year of the Dinosaur” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Year of the Dinosaur," sponsored by KeyBank, is a tribute to OMSI's "Dinosaurs, China's Ancient Giants" and features a life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex adult and newly-hatched young. The float features orange and red roses, anthurium, banksia, red ginger, king protea and bird of paradise. It is KeyBank's first float and was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Walk Like a Rose” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Walk Like a Rose," sponsored by Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon, is a salute to the inaugural Regence Grand Floral Walk. The tennis shoes consist of red carnations, white iris, red gladiolus and red roses. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“2008 Rose Festival Court” Grand Floral Parade Float
"2008 Rose Festival Court," sponsored by IKEA, carried the 14 members of the Rose Festival Court in the parade. The float includes liatris, orange roses, pink gerbera daisies, hot pink roses and green hanging amaranthus. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“‘I Do’ Redo” Grand Floral Parade Float
"'I Do' Redo," sponsored by Portland General Electric, featured the winners of PGE's "I Do" Redo contest: Ralph & Patricia Evans (married 57 years), John & Denise Harding (married 29 years) and Steve & Marilyn Fulton (married 21 years). The float includes green hanging amaranthus, green roses, hot pink snapdragons, bells of Ireland and green spider chrysanthemums. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Romancing Rose” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Romancing Rose," sponsored by the Spirit Mountain Casino, includes sunflowers, purple larkspur, blue delphinium, huckleberry and red and yellow roses. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“The Romance of the Clydesdales” Grand Floral Parade Float
"The Romance of the Clydesdales," sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, is their 29th consecutive float in the Grand Floral Parade, all of which have been pulled by the famous Budweiser Clydesdales. The use of the Clydesdales as a symbol of Budweiser dates to 1933 when August A. Busch Jr. and Adolphus Busch III presented a hitch of Clydesdales to their father August Busch Sr. in commemoration of the first bottle of post-prohibition beer brewed in St. Louis.
“The Romance of the Clydesdales” Grand Floral Parade Float
The float includes the brewing ingredients of beer: barley kernels for malt on the outside of the stable, rice for crispness on the stonework & fences and hop vines for aroma and spice on the side of the building. The float was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Best Festival in the World” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Best Festival in the World," sponsored by the Portland Rose Festival Foundation, includes red gladiolus, red carnations and red roses. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Honoring Those Who Serve” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Honoring Those Who Serve," sponsored by Shilo Inns Suites Hotels, Yorke & Curtis and CIDA, salutes members of the United States Armed Forces and the Salvation Army. The float includes red, white & blue flowers and was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Let’s Fly” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Let's Fly," sponsored by the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, celebrates the opening of the brand-new Evergreen Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon and depicts a Gemini spacecraft, used for ten manned flights in 1965 and 1966.
“Let’s Fly” Grand Floral Parade Float
The float was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“More Precious Than Gold” Grand Floral Parade Float
"More Precious Than Gold," sponsored by Reser's Fine Foods, includes a large pirate clearly (but not officially) inspired by Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series.
“More Precious Than Gold” Grand Floral Parade Float
“More Precious Than Gold” Grand Floral Parade Float
The float was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Sustain the Spirit” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Sustain the Spirit," sponsored by the Portland Rose Festival, announces the Oregon 150 celebration of Oregon's sesquicentennial, or 150th birthday, on February 14, 2009. The float includes Noble Fir branches and cedar bark, and was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“A Lifetime Love Affair” Grand Floral Parade Float
"A Lifetime Love Affair," sponsored by Fred Meyer, celebrates the joy of gardening. The float includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, carrots, corn, eggplant, alliums, delphinium, three colors of roses, hot pink alstromeria, and oriental red lilies, and was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“A Lifetime Love Affair” Grand Floral Parade Float
I don't know if it was intentional, but I think the gardener resembles Renee Zellweger's Vanessa Bloome from Bee Movie.
“The World Loves a Clown” Grand Floral Parade Float
"The World Loves a Clown," sponsored by the Portland Rose Festival, includes eremuris, giant alliums, blue iris and red & yellow roses and was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Courting Rosie” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Courting Rosie," sponsored by George Morlan Plumbing, includes purple iris, red roses, red carnations and red gladiolus.
“Courting Rosie” Grand Floral Parade Float
The float was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Dressed Like a King” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Dressed Like a King," sponsored by Exclusively Misook, carried festival king Rex Oregonus. The float includes hot pink gladiolus, carnations, liatris and roses. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Welcome our Friends from San Antonio” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Welcome our Friends from San Antonio," sponsored by the Royal Rosarians, carried Queen Mary Elizabeth Rogers and Princess Callie Melissa Mortimer of Fiesta San Antonio, organized by the Battle of Flowers Foundation.
“Welcome our Friends from San Antonio” Grand Floral Parade Float
The float includes red roses, red gladiolus, red carnations and red hanging amaranthus. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“Love is in the Air” Grand Floral Parade Float
"Love is in the Air," sponsored by Battle Ground Rose Float, is Battle Ground, Washington's 54th consecutive float in the Grand Floral Parade and was designed, built and decorated entirely by volunteers.
“Love is in the Air” Grand Floral Parade Float
“Love is in the Air” Grand Floral Parade Float
The float includes colored rice, dyed coconut, green & yellow split peas, mung beans, parsley, sesame seeds, 2,900 roses, 3,200 iris and 1,500 carnations.
“The Romance of the Race” Grand Floral Parade Float
"The Romance of the Race," sponsored by the Portland-Kaohsiung Sister City Association, is in the form of a dragon boat, with orange carnations, red gladiolus and red and yellow roses. It was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
“The Romance of Fiesta” Grand Floral Parade Float
"The Romance of Fiesta," sponsored by La Pantera, McDonald's and Regence, includes heliconia, red anthurium, ginger, yellow and orange roses, yellow chrysanthemums, red carnations and oncidium orchids. The float was built by Studio Concepts, Inc.
This concludes the original content of my 2008 Rose Festival page. To see any additional blog entries about the Rose Festival, click on the Rose Festival label.
