Three cheers for the new and improved SF Travel!
By Sam Whiting, Staff Writer Dec 28, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
When Tara Dade heard there would be a San Francisco-themed float in the Rose Parade, she knew what action she’d have to take. She loaded up her husband and two kids and fought the weekend Christmas traffic from Oakland to San Francisco to join a float decorating party at Union Square.
“It’s very exciting, and to be able to do a piece of it is an honor,” said Dade, who waited in line with her daughter, Mila Dade, 9, for the privilege of gluing a white bean onto a frame to form “S” and “F.”
Dade is 42, so she was not alive the last time San Francisco entered a civic float in the parade, in 1978. Before that, the city had a regular parade entrant going back to 1917. To be appointed to the float committee, by the mayor’s office, was a high honor that carried the responsibility of traveling to Pasadena for three nights of high-society cocktail parties leading up to the inspection of the city float on New Year’s Eve.
San Francisco was represented 43 times, but in 1978 the required cash infusion of a few hundred thousand dollars was deemed extravagant. The float was canceled, never to return until Anna Maria Presutti, president and CEO of San Francisco Travel, went looking for a novel advertising vehicle to lure tourists to the revitalized city.
“We were coming out of the doom loop narrative,” said Presutti, who did not know the city had ever sponsored a float when she attached her inspiration to a brainstorming meeting at San Francisco Travel last spring. “I said we need to attach the city of San Francisco to places that surprise and delight people.”
More than 1,000 leave their mark on S.F.’s first Rose Parade float in 48 years
Greg
Quick and Dirty
When Tara Dade heard there would be a San Francisco-themed float in the Rose Parade, she knew what action she’d have to take. She loaded up her husband and two kids and fought the weekend Christmas traffic from Oakland to San Francisco to join a float decorating party at Union Square.
“It’s very exciting, and to be able to do a piece of it is an honor,” said Dade, who waited in line with her daughter, Mila Dade, 9, for the privilege of gluing a white bean onto a frame to form “S” and “F.”
Tournament of Roses Parade
8-10 a.m. Thursday. ABC, NBC, Fox and streaming services. https://tournamentofroses.com
Dade is 42, so she was not alive the last time San Francisco entered a civic float in the parade, in 1978. Before that, the city had a regular parade entrant going back to 1917. To be appointed to the float committee, by the mayor’s office, was a high honor that carried the responsibility of traveling to Pasadena for three nights of high-society cocktail parties leading up to the inspection of the city float on New Year’s Eve.
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San Francisco was represented 43 times, but in 1978 the required cash infusion of a few hundred thousand dollars was deemed extravagant. The float was canceled, never to return until Anna Maria Presutti, president and CEO of San Francisco Travel, went looking for a novel advertising vehicle to lure tourists to the revitalized city.
“We were coming out of the doom loop narrative,” said Presutti, who did not know the city had ever sponsored a float when she attached her inspiration to a brainstorming meeting at San Francisco Travel last spring. “I said we need to attach the city of San Francisco to places that surprise and delight people.”
Brice Thomas and her daughter, Giana, 3, help decorate San Francisco’s Rose Parade entry at Winter Wonderland in Union Square on Dec. 21.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
One of those places is Colorado Boulevard, the Pasadena thoroughfare where the Rose Parade is staged. Decades ago, Presutti had worked at a hotel in Glendale that housed one of the teams playing in the Rose Bowl. A perk of that job was tickets in the reviewing stand of the parade on New Year’s morning. Presutti had firsthand experience of the advertising power presented by participation.
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“We were just sitting around one afternoon, and the Rose Parade came up. The TV viewership is over 50 million people,” she said. “I’m like, ‘How do we put a stamp on that? ’ Call down and see if it is doable.”
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Turns out it was, for a cost of around $350,000, to come out of the travel association’s marketing budget. A few companies specialize in floats, and hiring one is akin to hiring an architect to design a building. The designers come up with an idea and present it in a sketch for approval by the client.
Presutti and her committee chose Fiesta Productions of Irwindale, based on a winning bid by float designer Mike Abboud. In September, Presutti and her team went down to inspect the framework for the float, which is made of organic materials to stand 24 feet tall, 18 feet wide and 55 feet long.
“When they unveiled what it should look like, we thought, ‘That’s exactly what we had in mind.” she said. “The float depicts all the beautiful attractions and sights we have — the Golden Gate Bridge, a cable car with a bell that will ring, the Painted Ladies and the seals from Pier 39, who will bark when the float goes by.”
A rendering of the San Francisco float for the 2026 Rose Parade.
San Francisco Travel
Every float has a theme and a title. The last three San Francisco floats, from 1976, ’77 and ’78, were, “The City Greets the Arrival of the Overland Stage,” “Sunday in Golden Gate Park” and “The Happiness Ride.”
For its return after a 48-year absence, the city float is titled “Believe in San Francisco.” To build support, two structures were shipped from the Irwindale warehouse to San Francisco for a three-day decorating event that was part of the Winter Walk closure of Stockton Street before Christmas.
The weather was drizzly and the western part of the city was blacked out, but more than 1,000 people turned out for the chance to help decorate a Victorian house that is 8 feet tall, along with the “S.F.” letters.
“I am blown away by the community coming together, rain or shine, with or without power,” said Sabine Taliafiero, who came with her teenage son, Ruben, from their home in the Outer Mission. “San Francisco is back.”
Fiesta Productions’ Susan Ishkanian, right, directs volunteers as they decorate San Francisco’s Rose Parade entry at Winter Wonderland in Union Square on Dec. 21.
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Flowers are the main fabric of a Rose Parade float — more than 100,000 individual blooms per float. Those are fastened on by about 750 volunteers at the shop in Irwindale, before the judging competition of the floats in the Tournament of Roses, on New Year’s Eve.
When the float gets underway the next morning, its progress will be serenaded by “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding. Walking alongside will be seven board members of San Francisco Travel, each in a custom letter jacket bearing the colors and logos of the professional sports franchises, from the oldest, the 49ers established in 1948, to the Golden State Valkyries from 2024.
The attendants will get to keep their letter jackets. “They are coming down there to march for 5 miles,” Presutti said. “We figured we could get them a jacket.”
She and John Anderson, board chair of San Francisco Travel, will be in their own letter jackets riding on the float. Presutti has been practicing her wave. “Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist,” she said. “I will be waving and smiling and laughing because I just think it is so much fun.”
The San Francisco float at the Rose Parade in 1965.
Pasadena Tournament of Roses
Among the millions watching her wave will be 13 members of the extended families of Tara Dade and her sister Elizabeth Stewart, all of whom waited in line in the drizzle, “so the kids can say they decorated the float for the Rose Parade,” Stewart said.
Dade is a UCLA graduate who worked her way through as a student athletic trainer for the UCLA Bruins football team, which plays its home games in the Rose Bowl.
“The Rose Bowl is the pinnacle,” she said, a message she’s trying to impart on her kids, Mila and Nico. Whether or not they watch the game itself, they will be watching the 137th Rose Parade starting at 8 a.m. New Year’s Day.
“My daughter is into art, so she’s excited to see her contribution on TV,” Dade said.