"One of the first things that came out of our design meetings is that, yes, this is a very beautiful picture; it's a wonderful concept and it fits the theme perfectly," he said, referring to the parade's "Passport to the World's Celebrations" theme. "But we had a lot of concerns that it just wouldn't make a good float."
With plans for 9- to 12-foot Oktoberfest characters standing in front of a 24-foot mountain, the scale of the float might look incongruent on the parade route, he said.
"If you put them all together, right next to each other, it's just not going to look right," he said. "It's going to look like these gargantuan monsters overtaking a mountain."
In addition, 2008 Tournament of Roses President C.L. Keedy had expressed the desire to see a more festival-like party atmosphere for the parade, Edwards said.
So Burbank float organizers adjusted the design to incorporate a live Oom-pa-pa band, flanked with revelers dancing and gallivanting along with the float — to complement the original concept of an Alpine village setting, Edward said.
"We said, 'Let's tweak the design; let's still keep it Oktoberfest, and why don't we just add some more entertainment value?'" he said. "The direction the tournament would really like to go is toward making the Rose Parade more entertaining…. And I think our organization really believes in what we call continuous entertainment."
Work has already begun on the float, with volunteers spending the last several weekends working on the foundation, or chassis, in order to accommodate the design, said John Hames, president of the Burbank Tournament of Roses Assn.
Burbank is one of six cities that still takes on all construction and decorating responsibilities for its float entry, he said.
"We're the last bastion of float builders who are all volunteers," he said. "We don't get paid for it — it's just our love of doing it and our hobby on the weekends."
