The Florida Citrus Parade was an annual parade in Orlando, Florida which celebrated the holidays and two annual college football bowl games: the Pop-Tarts Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.
Started in 1980, the parade was previously known as the Florida Power (Progress Energy) Super Holiday Parade, the Orlando Citrus Parade, and most recently the Fresh From Florida Parade. In 2005, Delta Air Lines sponsored the parade, calling it The Orlando Citrus Parade, presented by Delta Air Lines. Since 2007, Spherion was a major sponsor of the parade along with Delta Air Lines as co-sponsor, being called The Spherion Orlando Citrus Parade, presented by Delta Air Lines. In 2011, the parade was sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, being renamed as the Fresh From Florida Parade for one year. Now it is known as the Florida Citrus Parade. In 2018 the parade was televised in the Orlando market as the "All New Orlando Citrus Parade" in a star studded celebration to benefit the Give Kids The World Village.
In 2019 the Orlando Citrus Parade organizers choose not to stage the event citing the cost of planning and producing the event.
The Florida Citrus Parade was an event which was planned and produced by The Florida Citrus Sports Foundation, as part of the annual Orlando Bowl Week. The event was placed in between the college football games during the last week in December.
The parade was previously videotaped and syndicated to over 100 television stations for broadcast during the New Year's Day Holiday; TVS Television Network handles distribution. Visitors to the parade can number over 50,000 along the parade route.
The parade would consists of both high school and Bowl-attending university marching bands from the Big Ten Conference or Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference, along with theme park characters from Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. Also, local and national celebrities participates in the event. The main features were the citrus-themed floats. These floats were decorated with citrus fruits in a similar style to the Lemon Festival in Menton, France. They also followed the tradition of the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. However, instead of decorating the floats with petals, they were decorated with oranges, grapefruits and tangerines.
The citrus floats were prepared and filled by over 600 volunteers who gave their time during the 4 days between December 26th and 29th. Then, generally on the last week of December of every year (In rare occasions, the parade was done on the 29th, because December 30 was a Sunday, or 31st of December, if the Citrus Bowl football game comes on January 2), the streets of Downtown Orlando were packed with visitors from other places who came to see their high school marching band and the marching bands for the two universities which would have a match up at the Citrus Bowl that year.
The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been played at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Since 2022, it has been sponsored by Vrbo and officially known as the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. Previous sponsors include PlayStation, BattleFrog, Vizio, Tostitos, IBM (1993–1995) and Sunkist (1986–1990).
The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade, is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day.
The Citrus Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Pop-Tarts Bowl and Florida Classic.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played in Orlando, Florida, at Camping World Stadium. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group which also organizes the Citrus Bowl and the Florida Classic. It was first played in 1990 in Miami Gardens, Florida, before moving to Orlando in 2001. Since it was commissioned as the Sunshine Classic, it has undergone several name changes. The game has tie-ins with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Big 12 Conference. In the College Football Playoff (CFP) era, the bowl seeks to match the top non-CFP selection from the ACC against the second non-CFP selection from the Big 12.
Camping World Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Orlando, Florida, United States located in the West Lakes neighborhood of Downtown Orlando, west of new sports and entertainment facilities including the Amway Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and Exploria Stadium. It opened in 1936 as Orlando Stadium and has also been known as the Tangerine Bowl and Florida Citrus Bowl. The City of Orlando owns and operates the stadium.
The Chicago Thanksgiving Parade, "Chicago's Grand Holiday Tradition", is an annual parade produced and presented by the Chicago Festival Association (CFA). It is held in downtown Chicago, Illinois, every Thanksgiving morning from 8:00 am until 11:00 am CST. It is televised locally on WCIU-TV; from 2007 to 2019 the event was carried on WGN-TV and its superstation feed nationwide.
Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, created by the efforts of Charles Frederick Holder and Francis F. Rowland, is the non-profit organization that has annually produced the Rose Parade on New Year's Day since 1890 and the Rose Bowl since 1902. "America's New Year Celebration" is "a festival of flowers, music and equestrians and sports unequaled anywhere in the world", according to the Tournament of Roses. The association has 935 volunteer members and the members spend some 80,000 combined work-hours to stage the events.
Tournament of Roses Parade floats are flower-covered parade floats, used in the annual New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade held in Pasadena, California. They evolved from flower-decorated horse carriages with the present day requirement that "every inch of every float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark". Three civic and floral industry leaders judge the floats and award prizes in 24 categories.
The Florida Classic is the annual college football rivalry game between Bethune–Cookman University and Florida A&M University. The game has been televised nationally by ESPN Classic as a part of a multi-year contract with the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), which had been both schools' home conference until their July 2021 departure for the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The game is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Pop-Tarts Bowl and Citrus Bowl. The Classic has approximately a $31 million impact on Orlando's economy; it was the largest MEAC conference football game before the schools left for the SWAC, and remains the largest Division I FCS football game in Florida.
The Cure Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played in December of each year in Orlando, Florida since 2015. It was originally held at Camping World Stadium, Exploria Stadium in 2022, and now FBC Mortgage Stadium. The Cure Bowl is so named to promote awareness and research of breast cancer, with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The Cure Bowl usually features teams from the American Athletic Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. It is sponsored by Avocados from Mexico and is officially known as the Avocados From Mexico Cure Bowl.
The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played annually in the Miami metropolitan area since January 1, 1935. Along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, it is one of the oldest bowl games in the country behind only the Rose Bowl, which was first played in 1902 and has been played annually since 1916. The Orange Bowl was originally held in the city of Miami at Miami Field before moving to the Miami Orange Bowl stadium in 1938. In 1996, it moved to its current location at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, the home football field for both the University of Miami and Miami Dolphins. Since December 2014, the game has been sponsored by Capital One and officially known as the Capital One Orange Bowl. Previous sponsors include Discover Financial and Federal Express/FedEx (1989–2010).
The 2015 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 2015, at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California. This 101st Rose Bowl Game, as a semifinal for the College Football Playoff (CFP), matched the Oregon Ducks against the Florida State Seminoles as selected by the system's selection committee to compete for a spot at the National Championship game to be played on January 12, 2015, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It was one of the 2014–15 bowl games that concluded the 2014 FBS football season.
The 2015 Citrus Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on January 1, 2015 at the Orlando Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. The 69th edition was one of the 2014–15 NCAA football bowl games that conclude the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The game started at approximately 1:00 p.m. EST and was televised by ABC. It was sponsored by the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant franchise and is officially known at the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl.
The 2016 Citrus Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on January 1, 2016 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The 70th edition was one of the 2015–16 NCAA football bowl games that concluded the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The game was televised by ABC. It was sponsored by the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant franchise and is officially known as the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl.
The 2015 Russell Athletic Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 29, 2015, at the Orlando Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. The 26th edition of the Russell Athletic Bowl featured the North Carolina Tar Heels of the Atlantic Coast Conference against the Baylor Bears of the Big 12 Conference. It began at 5:30 p.m. EST and aired on ESPN. It was one of the 2015–16 bowl games that concluded the 2015 FBS football season. The game's naming rights sponsor was the Russell Athletic uniform company.
The 2017 Cure Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 16, 2017, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, with kickoff at 2:30 p.m. local time. The third annual edition of the Cure Bowl, the game was one of the 2017–18 bowl games that concludes the 2017 FBS football season. Sponsored by automotive retailer AutoNation, the game was officially known as the AutoNation Cure Bowl.
The 2018 Citrus Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on January 1, 2018, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. This was the 72nd edition of a game that has been played annually since 1946, under several different names. It was one of the 2017–18 NCAA football bowl games concluding the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The game was nationally televised on ABC. Sponsored by Overton's, a boating and marine supply retailer, the game was officially known as the Citrus Bowl presented by Overton's.
The 2022 Cheez-It Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 29, 2022, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The 33rd annual Cheez-It Bowl, the game featured Florida State from the Atlantic Coast Conference and Oklahoma from the Big 12 Conference. The game began at 5:35 p.m. EST and was aired on ESPN. It was one of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. The game's title sponsor was Kellogg's through their Cheez-It brand.
The 2023 Citrus Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 2, 2023, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The 77th annual Citrus Bowl, the game featured the LSU Tigers of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Purdue Boilermakers of the Big Ten Conference. The game began at 1:08 p.m. EST and was aired on ABC. It was one of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. LSU won 63–7. The 56 point margin tied the 2008 GMAC Bowl and 2018 Armed Forces Bowl for the largest bowl game margin at the time; that record was surpassed seven days later when Georgia mauled TCU 65–7 in the CFP national championship game.
The 2024 Citrus Bowl is a college football bowl game that is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The 78th annual Citrus Bowl, the game will feature teams from the Big Ten Conference, and the Southeastern Conference. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. EST and will air on ABC. The Citrus Bowl will be one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The bowl game will be sponsored by Cheez-It, and the game will be officially known as the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.