An Irwindale company is back building Rose Parade floats after a one-year hiatus ...Middle East

As the sun rose above the San Gabriel hills on Saturday, Mike Abboud stood in an Irwindale warehouse and reaped the rewards of revival.

After a one-year hiatus, an award-winning commercial builder of Rose Parade floats — now Fiesta Productions — was back in business.

Abboud, surrounded by at least a dozen red-clad Tournament of Roses volunteers, led a time-honored fall tradition – the safety review of three parade entries for the 137th roll down Colorado Boulevard.

There were no Fiesta floats in the 2025 Rose Parade, as the tournament dropped them in June 2024 as an authorized builder after nearly four decades.

For Abboud, who was one of 18 employees laid off during Fiesta Parade Floats’ demise in 2024, the company’s resurrection was always in the cards.

“To see this company go away was not an option,” Abboud said of the tournament’s oldest float builder. He’s now Fiesta Productions’ president and chief creative officer.

For Abboud, who was employed under former owner Tim Estes for nine years, working on the Rose Parade was “more of a dream than a plan.”

He was catapulted into the float design business, he said, after a chance meeting with Raul R. Rodriguez before the former died in 2015. Meeting the renowned float designer and artist was “like magic happening,” said Abboud. And that made him determined to get into the float business to keep the spirit alive.

“The passion I have for the Rose Parade is unbelievable,” Abboud said as he reminisced about his career’s trajectory.

The new Fiesta now employs 14, Abboud said, with 10 of those returning from the old company.

His new team is building three, possibly four floats for the 2026 Rose Parade, he said. And, one of those, promises to be a show-stopper with a 31-foot-high ground-breaking animation.

On Saturday, all three floats had technical inspections and test drives.

The yet-to-be announced show-stopper float – still in its rawest chassis-only form – passed the T1 inspection. According to Kevin Walsh, Tournament of Roses chairman of float construction, the technical one phase is a mechanical test of maneuver-ability.  The engine is in place and works, he said, and the brakes work. The driver is sitting in his seat, with full view of the road.

Steve Altmayer is back in the driver’s seat for the show-stopper float. He worked on 38 parades with Estes, he said, and was happy to be back under Abboud.

“He’s a nice guy,” Altmayer said of his new boss. “He’s rounded up all the premier people from the old staff and we’re glad to be back.”

The City of Torrance’s “Together in Harmony” and San Francisco Travel Association’s “Believe in San Francisco” both passed the T2 inspection phase. Technical two phase is when a float is ready for decoration. The chassis is fully encased, the artistic elements are painted and the driver is hidden underneath all the regalia.

T2, said Walsh, is also when animation is tested and when driver, observer and any float riders have to pass a 45-second evacuation test in case of a fire or other emergency.

West Torrance High School senior Elizabeth Le, whose design inspired Torrance’s “Harmony of Nature,” will be one of the float riders. She said the 2026 parade will be her first.

“I’m very excited,” Le said. “I’d never thought this would happen.”

Tournament of Roses President Mark Leavens was also on hand Saturday morning at Fiesta Production’s test drive.

Once October hits, he said, the Tournament goes into overdrive. There’s the Rose Court announcement, an upcoming grand marshal announcement this week and the Rose Queen crowning on Oct. 28.

It’s a time when all the pieces come together, Leavens said.

And, witnessing the resurgence of an award-winning float builder, Leavens said, is a happy part of that.

“The old Fiesta had a long list of building award-winning floats,” Leavens said. “Mike (Abboud) was part of that and we are excited to have Fiesta Productions’ floats going forward.”

David Eads, Pasadena Tournament of Roses CEO, who ultimately determined the old Fiesta had not met criteria to continue float building, said in a statement he was glad to see Fiesta Productions carrying forward Rose Parade’s “proud history of artistry and innovation.”

“It’s exciting to welcome them alongside our other commercial float builders,” Eads wrote. “And we can’t wait to see their creativity come to life on Colorado Boulevard.”

For now, creativity was only on display beside the 210 freeway on Irwindale side streets.

As the last of the three floats glided effortlessly down Avenida Padilla and rounded the corner to Irwindale Road, Abboud stood on the grass recording video on his phone.

“So far, so good,” he said. “It’s an excellent start.”

Lisa Jacobs is a Southern California freelance writer and a former editor at the Southern California News Group.

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