The countdown is on for the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade this weekend, and CBS News Bay Area got a first look at the preparations taking place.
“On my right, we’ve got Alaska. On my left, we’ve got Lucky. Two very different but two very beautiful horses,” said Stephanie Mufson, the owner of The Parade Guys.
It’s her 10th season working on the dazzling San Francisco Chinese New Year parade.
“It’s the year of the fire horse, and so we really wanted to have one or two floats that really leaned into fire. So, we got this beautiful floral fire,” she said.
She oversees up to 30 crew members putting the floats together. The designing process began last November, and Mufson adds that there were some challenges.
“The tariffs and the rising costs of things have been a challenge. Most of the people contracts don’t change much, but the prices to create these things definitely has gone up. So, one of our main challenges this year has been to maintain the quality that everyone expects of us and that we expect of ourselves, while squeezing it into tighter budgets,” she said.
Despite these obstacles, Mufson is managing 16 shimmering floats where beautiful horses stand tall. Abeje Maoled has been working with The Parade Guys for some time now, and every year, one thing brings her back.
“The creativity. Of course, the glitter, and it’s a lot of work. And a lot of chaos sometimes, but the end products are really beautiful and seeing the crowd when you go out to parade day, everybody’s always appreciative of the hard work,” she said.
And while the parade is on Saturday, Mufson said the horses and decorations will live on long after.
“All the floats live here with us at Pier 19, and you can see behind me we save as much as we can from year to year, if there’s a chance to repurpose it, we will,” she said.
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