Gasparilla Pirate Festival

Gasparilla Pirate Festival
The Jose Gasparilla II sails to downtown Tampa, Gasparilla Day 2003.
GenreParades and related events
Date(s)Last Saturday in January (Parade of Pirates)
BeginsMid-January (Children's Parade)
EndsEarly March (Outward Voyage Home)
FrequencyAnnual
Location(s)Tampa, Florida
CountryUnited States
Inaugurated1904
Most recentJanuary 27, 2024
Next eventJanuary 25, 2025
Attendance300,000
Organised byYe Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla,
City of Tampa
Websitegasparillapiratefest.com

The Gasparilla Pirate Festival (often simply referred to as Gasparilla[1] /ˌɡæspəˈrɪlə/ ⓘ) is a large parade and a host of related community events held in Tampa, Florida, United States, most years since 1904.[2] The centerpiece of the festivities is the Parade of Pirates, which is framed as a friendly invasion by the crew of the mythical pirate José Gaspar (also known as Gasparilla), a popular figure in Florida folklore. The Parade of Pirates is often referred to as the Gasparilla Parade by locals, and the date of the event is known as Gasparilla Day.[3]

The Parade of Pirates and some related events are organized by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (YMKG), a local club modeled after the krewes of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. On Gasparilla Day, members of YMKG reenact the fictional story of Gaspar and his crew by donning pirate regalia and sailing across Tampa Bay aboard the Jose Gasparilla II, a 137-foot-long (42 m) replica pirate ship which is actually a steel barge converted to look like a large West Indiaman. Firing loud mini-cannons and accompanied by hundreds of private boats, the pirates make their way to the Tampa Convention Center, where they demand that the mayor surrender the key to the city in a playful ceremony. YMKG then stages a 4.5-mile-long (7.2 km) victory parade down Bayshore Boulevard featuring over 100 floats, marching bands and other live entertainers, and dozens of additional krewes and community organizations. Participants on floats and on foot throw beads, coins, and other trinkets to a crowd of spectators that usually numbers about 300,000, making the Parade of Pirates one of the largest annual parades in the United States.[1]

Gasparilla began as a surprise land-based pirate "invasion" by a few civic leaders during the city's May Day festival in 1904. Over the next decade, a pirate-themed parade and festival was sometimes staged as an add-on to other community events, with the highlight of the early period being the first seaborne invasion in 1911. The Gasparilla Festival became a stand-alone event in 1913, and with the exception of hiatuses during world wars, it has been celebrated almost every year since. The parade has been scheduled for late January or early February for much of its existence, and since 2005, it has taken place on the last Saturday in January. The route of the Gasparilla Parade has traditionally wound along the waterfront into downtown Tampa, and since 2011, it has ended along the Tampa Riverwalk, where festivities continue into the nighttime hours.[4]

Over time, the formerly one-day event has evolved into a Gasparilla season which runs from approximately the beginning of the year until mid-March. Two other major parades during this time are the Gasparilla Children's Parade, which runs a shorter route on Bayshore Boulevard one week before the main parade, and the Sant' Yago Illuminated Knight Parade, which is organized by the Krewe of the Knights of Sant' Yago in the historic neighborhood of Ybor City two weeks after the main parade.[5][6] Besides the three large parades, the city hosts many other community events during this time including the Gasparilla Film Festival, the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, the Gasparilla Distance Classic, the Gasparilla Music Festival, the Gasparilla Bowl college football game, and a broad slate of other events that varies from year to year.[7] Most of these events are not organized or officially sanctioned by the city or YMKG, which have only limited legal control of the Gasparilla name.[8] Taken together, the events of Tampa's Gasparilla Season have an estimated local economic impact of about $40 million.[4]

  1. ^ a b "Gasparilla 2023 FAQ". Gasparilla Pirate Fest. Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  2. ^ "Gasparilla". City of Tampa. August 6, 2014. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference autogenerated5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b "Gasparilla parade's 100th edition marked by mostly behaved revelry". Tampa Bay Times. January 31, 2015. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  5. ^ Welch, Monique (January 17, 2019). "Children's parade kicks off Tampa's Gasparilla celebration this weekend". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on January 24, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference knightparade was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Wynne, Sharon Kennedy (January 25, 2019). "Everything you need to know for Gasparilla 2019". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2020.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference trademark was invoked but never defined (see the help page).