By Charly SHELTON

Each year, thousands of people come to Pasadena to see the fabulous Rose Parade, while millions around the world watch on television. Those who are in Pasadena have the opportunity before the parade begins to go to several locations around the city to see the Rose Parade floats being decorated by volunteers. This holiday tradition is about to get even better with the introduction of Sip & Savor, a new food and wine festival at the Rosemont Pavilion, just across the street from the Rose Bowl.

“I’ve been building the floats for the Tournament of Roses for probably the past 20 years or so out here in Azusa, and the Tournament asked me to move out to Pasadena to build and do our decorating in a facility they have there. I wanted to do something a little bit different,” said Craig Bugajski, president of Artistic Entertainment Services Creative and executive producer of the event. “We are creating a new end-of-the-year celebration for the week leading up to the parade. We are decorating eight Rose Parade floats in the Rosemont Pavilion. Next door is the Jackie Robinson Stadium. We partnered with the Tournament to do a public viewing walk-through of the parade float building and I thought this would be a great opportunity to do a three-day food and wine event called Sip & Savor.”

This all-new event will feature 17 restaurants from across Southern California providing tastes of food from barbecue to lavender lattes to egg dishes and more.

“One of my favorite [food vendors] is just weird, I love it,” said Tim O’Day, agency principal at The TO’DAY Group, which is helping to promote the event. “It’s called Twisted and it’s a South American take on what we traditionally know here in the States as cotton candy. They create all kinds of crazy sculptures out of cotton candy. It’s basically edible sculpture. It’s a lot of fun.”

In addition to the restaurants, the event will feature more than 20 wineries, four breweries, unique vendors, a kids area sponsored by nearby kids edutainment museum Kidspace, and a list of live entertainment including tribute bands 80z All Stars and Delta Daddios, magician Johnny Ace Palmer, hammered dulcimer musician Scott Williams and daily performances by Grammy-Award-winning group, the Mariachi Divas.

Guest admission starts at $15 and includes entry to the parade decorating location where attendees can see parade floats being decorated. The flow of the event will empty into Sip & Savor, where guests will have the option to purchase tasting tickets or tasting packages for the various vendors.

“The float viewing is always popular. People love coming in and seeing the floats being decorated,” O’Day said. “Craig and his team just create these mammoth mechanical wonders, the skeletal things aboard these floats, and everybody comes in and applies the flowers to them. It’s pretty amazing when you walk into the Rosemont Pavilion and all you smell is flowers. People can go in there and experience that, take as much time as they want, take all the pictures they want, and then they empty out into this high-end food and wine festival. It’s a pretty unique experience.”

The Sip & Savor event will be held the weekend before the Rose Parade, Friday through Sunday, Dec 28-30. General admission is $15, and tasting tickets are $3 each with each taste costing between one and three tickets. Tasting Ticket books are available as well, in eight, 16 and 22 ticket packages for $20, $35 and $50, respectively.

VIP admission is $150, which includes admission with expedited entry, unlimited tastings at the festival and a special VIP tent area with private restrooms.

Tickets and more info can be found online at SipAndSavorPasadena.com.

  Charly Shelton