More about Pasadena California

The city of Pasadena is most famous for housing the annual Rose Bowl football game and the annual Tournament of Roses Parade. It is home to an estimated 150,185 residents as of 2005 making it the 160th largest city in the nation. The city is also home to many of the leading scientific and cultural institutes in the country, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the California Institute of Technology. Pasadena is well-known for its performing arts; the Pasadena Symphony, founded in 1928, holds several concerts each year at the city’s Civic Center. The city also has the Pasadena Pops which performs at the Descanso Gardens. The city is also home to the Pasadena Playhouse, the Furious Theatre Company and the Carrie Hamilton Theatre. The city’s cultural institution has allowed free admission during ArtNight Pasadena for the last ten years, offering those in attendance a large sample of art, music, and artifacts. The city also offers a wide array of visual art with the Norton Simon Museum which contains over 2000 years of artwork coming from Asia and the Western regions of the world, also the Pacific Asia Museum which hosts a tranquil garden and artwork from many Asian countries. The city is also home to the Pasadena Museum of California Art which hosts temporary exhibits by Californian artists. Beside art, the city is most well-known for the Rose Bowl, a National Historic Landmark; the Rose Bowl is host to the most famous and oldest college football postseason bowl game, the Tournament of Roses Rose Bowl Game, which is held every New Years Day. The Rose Bowl is also the home field of the UCLA Bruins football team an has hosted five Super Bowls since its opening. The Tournament of Roses Parade, held each year on January 1, is another staple of the city. The parade began in 1890 and has been going ever since, featuring elaborate floats in which, “every inch of every float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark.” The parade last over two hours, and all those involved walk over five miles, past over 1 million viewers. When the parade first began, there was no bowl game to go with it, but in 1902, the Tournament of Roses Association decided that a college football game was needed to go along with the parade. The first game was played between Stanford University and the University of Michigan, but after that first game, the association lost so much money, they decided to cancel the game, but it eventually returned in 1916 and the game was officially moved to the Rose Bowl from its original location at the Tournament Park when it was decided that the stands would not hold enough people.