Gasparilla Pirate Festival- Tampa

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The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is an annual celebration held in the city of Tampa, Florida. Held each year in late January or early February and hosted by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and the City of Tampa, it celebrates the apocryphal legend of José Gaspar (Gasparilla), a mythical Spanish pirate captain who supposedly operated in Southwest Florida.

Pirate festival
The first Gasparilla parade was held in May 1904, after Tampa Tribune society editor Miss Louise Frances Dodge and Tampa's director of customs George Hardee combined the legend of the dashing pirate and elements of a New Orleans Mardi Gras to give Tampa's relatively sedate May Day celebration a new theme. The first "invasion" was via horseback, with the first sea-based invasion coming in 1911.

Parades and pirates
The theme and focal point of Gasparilla is an "invasion" by Jose Gaspar and his crew. On the day of the main Gasparilla parade, members of Ye Mystik Krewe of Gasparilla, accompanied by a flotilla of hundreds of smaller boats, sail across Tampa Bay to downtown Tampa on the Jose Gaspar, a 165' long "pirate" ship which was specially ...
... built for this purpose in 1954.The mayor of Tampa then hands over the key of the city to the pirate captain and a "victory parade" ensues down Bayshore Boulevard, one of Tampa's major streets. Ye Mystik Krewe and other krewes throw beads, coins and other items while shooting blank pistols from floats during the parade. The parade is broadcast every year on WFLA-TV, and has been since 1955; station WTVT-TV also covered the parade from 1955 to 1980. That make Tampa weekends more beautiful for everyone.

In all parades, area high schools and universities provide marching bands, majorettes, and drill teams as part of the festivities. Many local businesses and organizations participate by entering often-elaborate floats and throwing beads, coins, and other trinkets to the crowd along the parade route.

Related events
Tampa hosts a variety of other Gasparilla-themed events in the spring, including the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, the Gasparilla Film Festival, the Gasparilla Pageant and Fashion Festival, the Gasparilla Music Festival, and the Gasparilla Distance Classic, a road race along Bayshore Boulevard.

2013 Event Details
January 26, 2013 - January 26, 2013
Location: Downtown Tampa, along Florida Ave. from Kennedy Blvd. to Channelside Dr.
Address: 3701 Bayshore Blvd,, Tampa, FL 33611
Times: All Day

For over a century, pirates have invaded Tampa Bay in celebration of the spirit of adventure and antics of legendary pirate Jose Gaspar and his merry mates. The Seminole Hard Rock Gasparilla Pirate Fest blasts off as 1,000 rowdy pirates sail into downtown Tampa - with cannons booming and flags flying - on a fully rigged pirate ship flanked by hundreds of pleasure crafts.

The pirates then invade the city displaying their treasures in a colorful parade. The Gasparilla Pirate Fest activities include the invasion and parade, plus Pirate’s Chest Arts & Crafts show, the Gasparilla Midway, and local and national entertainment acts performing live on stages throughout downtown.

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