Award-winning parade float company will close after being dropped by Tournament of Roses

Antonio de Jesus Lopez made his way across the Fiesta Parade Floats warehouse in Irwindale, California, pushing a red dolly with two large signs from his first Rose Parade float in 2020.

The warehouse around him was filled with the whir of buzz saws and the flashing sparks of welding tools as his coworkers dismantled floats from past years of the iconic Rose Parade.

In his early days at the company, de Jesus Lopez said, he was excited to come to work and improve his art skills alongside designers, decorators, engineers and welders, many of them Latinos and Latinas. The camaraderie, he said, made it an enjoyable work environment.

"It almost felt like you were working with your uncle or your grandma," de Jesus Lopez said. Now, he said, "it just seems bleak."

It's been a difficult two weeks for the 18 employees at Fiesta Parade Floats, one of the premier float builders for the Tournament of Roses Parade. After nearly 40 years, Fiesta is shutting down after the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. cut ties with the company, saying the firm no longer met the established criteria for float builders.

David Eads, the chief executive officer of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, said in a phone interview that the criteria included maintaining financial responsibility, insurance coverage, floral suppliers, a physical location and experienced workers to build and operate the floats. He declined to say which criteria Fiesta Parade Floats failed to meet.

The ban, Eads said, was "not a decision that the association arrived at quickly or easily." He said it was the first time in recent years that a float builder could not take part in the tournament.

Eads said the Rose Parade is grateful to the company for its "decades of service" and its award-winning work, which included a float recognized by the Guinness World Record in 2017 for heaviest and longest single chassis parade float.

Tim Estes, owner of the Fiesta Parade Floats, said the association's decision was a gut punch.

"I feel horrible," Estes, 68, said. "I feel horrible for my workers. I feel bad for my clients who depended on us to build nice floats... I feel like I've let them all down."

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