pkg michelle turner the parade came first, the first parade was in 1890 and that was held by a local club called the valley hunt club. professor charles holder suggested they hold a festival to show off to their winter counterparts to show off what a fabulous winter we had. but after a while - southern california's best effort to thumb their nose at the rest of the nation just wasn't getting the attention organizers hoped it would. their solution was to play a football game for the whole nation to see. a rocky start eventually lead to games starting in 1916. turner eventually these games were getting so popular and creating enough revenue that they decided to build a bowl. the early crowds of 25 thousand people now are dwarfed by a sell out crowd of 92 thousand. upgrades and additions mean the stadium can host olympic events, world cup soccer and five super bowls. turnerit's great because you know it's what the founders of the parade wanted. they wanted pasadena to get this national and international attention and see how great of a winter we have it's also great because of the green