Cal Poly’s 2023 Rose Float will feature giant snails and mushrooms — here’s a look
Cal Poly has revealed its theme for its 2023 Rose Parade float — a scene of a giant log with enormous snails, fungi and plants around it to depict the parade’s theme “Turning the Corner,” according to a news release by the university.
The float, called “Road to Reclamation,” is meant to symbolize “the positive change and unlimited potential that each new year can bring,” the news release said.
“A nurse log serves as a vital part of a forest ecosystem,” Annie Doody, Cal Poly Rose Float president, said in the release. “It serves as the basis of a new environment as a community comes together to create something new.
“Change is caused by many things: It can be the turnover from one year to the next, or the graduation from a university into the workforce. Whatever the case, ‘turning the corner’ reminds us to face these changes with open minds and excitement for what comes next. Our float represents rebirth and second chances, as well as the magic and wonder that come with the endless possibilities of a new start. After all, who knows what’s around the corner?”
Aside from the log, the 23-foot-tall float will feature several huge snails, giant mushrooms, various other fungi and flowers atop a bed of grass. The team is planning to use more than 3,500 chrysanthemums on the snail shells alone and growing sheets of clover to test for the moss and forest floor aspects of the float.
Cal Poly’s 74th year of entering the parade is once again a partnership between the San Luis Obispo and Pomona campuses. The students have been working on the design since February and are now working on building the structure.
The float was designed by Cal Poly SLO mechanical engineering student Benjamino Cruz.
“We’re taking a small, often overlooked, part of nature and scaling it up to the size of a 55-foot-long Rose Parade float,” said Ryan Ward, a mechanical engineering senior who is president of the Pomona Rose Float team.
The 2022 float, titled “Stargrazers,” won the parade’s animation award.
