Cal Poly’s Loch Ness monster float takes home spirit award at Rose Parade

Cal Poly’s submission in the 2025 Rose Parade took home an award for public spirit to ring in the new year.

On New Year’s Day following its participation in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, Cal Poly’s “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs” float featuring Nessie the Loch Ness monster received the Leishman Public Spirit award for the most outstanding floral presentation from a non-commercial participant.

“We got the Leishman award for most outstanding floral presentation from a non-commercial entry,” Cal Poly Rose float president Collin Marfia said in a news release from the university. “We’re just ecstatic! This is a floral award, and the last time we also won it was 2016 for ‘Sweet Shenanigans.’”

This year, the university’s float depicted a lakeside party featuring the Loch Ness monster, a highland cow and a slew of other Scottish-inspired characters in honor of the 2025 parade theme, “Best Day Ever.”

Cal Poly universities are the only schools to field a student-built float in the tournament, according to the release.

A total of around 60 people from both Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona planned and prepared the float for nearly a year, testing the mechanics and materials used and planning the elaborate floral decoration, according to a Cal Poly news release.

“Nessie is very shy, very elusive,” Marfia said in the release. “She doesn’t have very many friends when she’s hiding in the depths of Loch Ness. So when she finally gains the bravery to surface, she ends up making a bunch of new friends. It’s essentially a celebration of love and friendship, and Nessie’s able to finally have her best day ever with her new friends.”

Starting Dec. 26, students worked from 7 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m. to finish decorating the float with over 37,000 flowers prior to the New Year’s Day classic, Cal Poly officials said.

The final product measured 55 feet long, 21 feet high and 17 feet wide and featured several animated elements, such as a moving head and neck for Nessie.

Nessie’s body is covered in green lentils and split green peas to achieve a mottled olive look, while the coats of the furry highland animals are made from coconut husks, corn silk and other plant-based components, according to the release.

“The thing that I’m most excited for is to see my team’s reactions and see their joy and excitement as it passes as a kind of payoff: ‘We did it. We made this.’”