ACADIANA, La. — For the third year in a row, Louisiana is being highlighted in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day in Pasadena, California.
I spoke with two of the Louisiana float riders: Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and Amanda Shaw, Louisiana Music Hall of Fame Cajun fiddler.
In the video above, you can hear what they had to say about how Louisiana's culture is being highlighted throughout the parade, some of the benefits to Louisiana from our participation and how we are representing the parade's theme through our float's theme of "Explore Louisiana."
Below, you can read the rest of the questions asked and answers given during the interview.
Why do you think Louisiana is being highlighted in this year's parade?
"Well, coming out of Covid, we knew we had to do something special to track visitors back to Louisiana, and what do we do better than anyone? We throw a parade, so Mardi Gras. So, we looked around the country, and surely, this parade reaches billions of people, so surely, we want to try and get a float in here," Nungesser said. "It's our third year. This year is a great theme of '(Celebrating a World of) Music: The Universal Language.' To be having our great talent from Louisiana highlighted surely makes it a little extra special."
Can you tell me some of the songs y'all are going to be performing, the types of music?
Oh man, you know, I think every Louisiana person is going to recognize the songs that we play. It's a bunch of classics and standards, you know, for Mardi Gras, you know," Shaw said. "We all know that Christmas is not the end of the holiday season here in Louisiana. We jump from New Year's, and we go straight to Mardi Gras, so it's going to be a really great way for people from back home to kick off the Mardi Gras season and really get into the spirit and get ready for what's coming back home."
How does it feel to be representing Louisiana in the parade?
"Like I said earlier, you know, we're representing culture from every piece of the state. I grew up on the North Shore, and I started learning Cajun music when I was a young girl, and I honestly feel so proud to be a part of the Cajun music community and to be able to share that culture with, you know, the world here on such a national stage, you know, here in Pasadena is incredibly special to me," Shaw said. "You know, we are so rich in culture. We're so—our culture is unique to us, and so, you know, nobody knows how to do it like Louisiana folks."
Where can we see some more performances coming up?
"We haven't put the schedule together, but we're reaching out to every city that has large music events, and we're going to partner with them to bring Louisiana to them, so then they'll come see us in Louisiana," Nungesser said.
How long did it take to put the float together?
"Well, they're still working on it. It's going to take until the last minute. On Sunday morning, there will be a live performance here at the den, and then the judging begins. Everything on this float has to be covered in a seed, a weed. You see they're putting rice on the fleur de lis. It's painted gold. So, every little thing has to be put in place before the parade rolls. Pretty incredible," Nungesser said. "Over 100 volunteers came from Louisiana out here to help us. They're working hard from five in the morning, 10 at night every day leading up to the parade."
"We have such great community in Louisiana. The fact that we have folks out here willing to come and help out and make us look the best that we possibly can means a lot to us," Shaw said.
How long have they been working so far?
"Well, we started yesterday morning about 4:30 in the morning, and that will go on up until the parade," Nungesser said.
What's going to happen to the float after the parade? Are we going to see it in some of our Mardi Gras parades?
"You know, unfortunately, they take it apart," Nungesser said. "I just saw some of the parts of the float from last year. There's an alligator over in the corner, but we had a couple of the pelicans shipped home in the museum in Baton Rouge, so, no, they dismantle them, and unfortunately, people will pull those flowers off at the end of the parade, but other than a few flowers to take home, they tear it apart and start over next year."
"I was going to say 'It'd probably be hard to keep those flowers alive until Mardi Gras,' okay," Shaw said.
What are y'all hoping people learn about Louisiana culture from seeing our float and seeing the performances?
"Well, you know, Amanda, the performers, the Louisianians have so much love and passion for our state. I just hope everybody back home is as proud as we are of Louisiana, putting our best foot forward, kicking off the new year on a positive note," Nungesser said. "It's going to make Louisiana proud, and it's going to get people excited about coming to Louisiana. We see traffic to our website go up, way up, after this parade, people booking trips to Louisiana, and we hope that happens again this year."
"And I also hope that people realize that there's a little something for everybody here in Louisiana, you know," Shaw said. "No matter who you are or what you're into, we've got a festival for that, so you can plan your time to come visit any weekend of the year."
The parade will be broadcast live on ABC at 10 a.m. Central on New Year's Day.
