Attendance At 135th Rose Parade Rebounds From Smaller Post-Pandemic Crowds

The 135th Rose Parade, held on New Year’s Day 2024, marked a significant rebound in crowd sizes, drawing the largest audience since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to a City official. 

“The City anticipates it was the largest crowd in three years because it brought back the traditional Parade,” said Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian. “There was no Parade due to COVID three years ago, then strict COVID restrictions and a surge in cases two years ago drew sparse crowds and last year the Parade was on Monday, January 2nd because never on a Sunday. This year families were anxious to get back to their traditional celebrating and claiming spots along the route that they’ve viewed the Parade for generations. The weather cooperated and you could feel the excitement and energy in all the spectators as Pasadena shined worldwide.”

The pandemic led to a shutdown of the event in 2021, and subsequent years saw a decrease in crowd sizes.

The event, which typically attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators, saw a dip in attendance in 2022 and 2023 following the height of the pandemic, but the 2024 parade attendance was the biggest in the last three years.

Tournament officials said the 2024 parade was a resounding success, captivating audiences with unparalleled artistry and music.

Pasadena Now Weekender Editor Eddie Rivera, who has covered the parade many times, said this year’s was the most entertaining and enjoyable he’s witnessed.

The parade featured 40 floats, 17 equestrian units, and 20 marching bands, and was broadcast and livestreamed to a global audience. The theme for the year was “Celebrating a World of Music: The Universal Language,” and the event was marked by a variety of performances, including those by Destiny’s Child veteran Michelle Williams.

While there is no official estimate for the crowd size, city spokesperson Lisa Derderian told the Pasadena Star-News that some blocks had more than 100 people per block, indicating a significant turnout in total.

Despite the large crowds, there were few incidents along the 5.5-mile route, with just 10 medical emergencies and no arrests over New Year’s Eve night.

The Rose Parade has a long history dating back to 1890 when the Valley Hunt Club first sponsored it.

While the 2024 parade marked a return to pre-pandemic crowd sizes, officials are hopeful that the event will continue to grow in the coming years. 

The earliest Rose Parade, held in 1890, welcomed 3,000 spectators but it’s unclear if this is the smallest crowd size in the event’s history.

The largest crowd size for the Rose Parade is estimated to have been around 1 million spectators. This figure has been mentioned for several years, including 2004, according to historical attendance estimates provided by the Tournament of Roses and the Pasadena Police Department6. However, it’s important to note that crowd size estimates for the Rose Parade have varied over the years and have not always been consistent. In the past, crowd estimates have ranged from 700,000 to 1 million attendees. The 2019 Rose Parade was estimated to have attracted about 700,000 spectators.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Tournament of Roses has historically estimated its attendance at from 1 to 1.5 million since 1930, but these figures have been subject to skepticism and the methodology for estimating crowd sizes has been debated. The lack of a standardized and reliable method for crowd counting makes it difficult to determine the absolute largest crowd size in the history of the Rose Parade.