2024 Rose Parade to feature West Chester marching band's "Love Notes from Philadelphia"
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (CBS) -- West Chester University's Incomparable Golden Rams Marching Band is in Southern California to march in the 135th Rose Parade.
Todd Marcocci is our tour guide inside the floral warehouse in Los Angeles.
"A lot of hands. A lot of time. A lot of planning," he said.
It's here Marcocci and a team from West Chester are working nonstop ahead of the parade.
The Incomparable Golden Rams Marching Band poured hours into rehearsal and come Monday, 330-plus members will make history during the New Year's Day tradition that leads into the Rose Bowl game between Alabama and Michigan.
"Seventy million people are going to be watching on television worldwide," Marcocci said. "How do you comprehend that in your head?"
"It is a huge deal. And of course, our name is the West Chester University Incomparable Golden Rams Marching Band, and we can't do anything normal," Marcocci said. "We have to be incomparable."
By that, he means history making from America's birthplace.
Not only are the Golden Rams the first from Pennsylvania's state system of higher education to perform in the Rose Parade, but the Ram band will also become the first to use more than 20,000 live flowers as a part of the marching musical float.
It's taken months of planning and practice with help from volunteers for this perfection.
"We are calling it 'Love Notes from Philadelphia,'" Marcocci said.
While some of the pieces like the banner are being assembled on the West Coast, panels of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell were made in Chester County and brought out on a tractor-trailer.
You can see them in the Rose Parade live on New Year's Day, streaming for the first time ever on Pluto TV, which is owned by the parent company of CBS Philadelphia.