Gasparilla Pirate Parade 2024

Bayshore Boulevard, Tampa, Florida
January 27, 2024

This year Jay and Joyce again attended the Gasparilla Pirate Parade in Tampa.

Gasparilla is a major event; with numerous parades and events. The highlight is the 4.5 mile parade largely along Bayshore Boulevard, with around 175 professionally built floats, many "manned" by local Krewes. In addition to floats there are some local school bands. It is said that this parade is somewhere between the third and fifth largest parade in the US. Spectators line the parade route seeking beads thrown from floats and parade participants. Needless to say, there is a very large police presence, but law enforcement maintains a low profile. The crowd is typically loud, happy, and boisterous. We did see one instance of crowd misbehavior - a fight quickly brought under control by police.

The parade is organized by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (YMKG), a local organization modeled after the "krewes" of Mardi Gras in New Orleans who play the parts of Gaspar and his crew. On Gasparilla Day, members of YMKG don pirate regalia and sail across Tampa Bay aboard the Jose Gasparilla II, a 165-foot-long "pirate ship" which is actually a steel barge converted to look like a large West Indiaman. The barge can accomodate 600 passenfers but the number is kept down to around 450 for added safety. Firing loud mini-canons 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. Gaspar and his crew then stage a "victory parade" featuring 50 additional krewes, over 100 floats, and dozens of other community organizations. Parade members throw beads and other trinkets to a crowd - this year - of about 380,000. The parade has always been held along Tampa's waterfront near downtown Tampa, and since 2011, it has ended along the Tampa Riverwalk, where festivities continue into the nighttime hours.

We had a very good time!

This was the fourth time we bought tickets for the First Mate section. Our first time was in 2018 and we would have returned in 2019 but the parade date conflicted with a major medical appointment. Our second time was in 2020. The 2019 Parade was cancelled (COVID) and we had a wedding to attend on the 2022 Parade Day. The First Mate section is private, with just one row of chairs in essentially a private seating area with a security crew manning the entrances.

An additional selling point for the First Mate section is porta-potties in a private seating area that serve just a limited number of parade spectators. (We knew what porta-potties in the public areas look like after a day of Gasparilla partying.)

This year we again made our snack stop at the nearby Publix, just a few blocks from our excellent parade-watching seats.

Yes, we had a great time. There were things to do to pass the time until the start of the Pirate Parade including watching the "invasion" of Tampa, talking to people in our section, and enjoying our snacks and drinks.

While the weather was wonderful and we had a great time, there were a couple of "lessons learned" about our attending this Gasparilla Pirate Parade. For the 2023 parade, we carried all of our drinks, food, chairs, and other parade gear in our collapsible beach wagon. This worked amazingly well. Somehow our memories became short, and we did not use the beach wagon this year, instead pulling a cooler that had two roller wheels. Let's just say that for any other pirate parades we need to be using that beach wagon.

We also arrived downtown a bit later than we did in 2023. Even though we were there before 10 AM (and the parade does not even begin until 2 PM) the parking lots were filling up and the traffic was already crazy. go even earlier next time.

Oh, yes, we again collected beads; almost more than we could carry.

(Click on any slide to enlarge it.)

Pirates from Valrico travel to Tampa waterside to join the festivities

Waiting for the Pirate Parade to begin

This year learned that a "grabber" is very handy for picking up beads. A grabber is a small device about 3 feet long. It has a handle at one end, and something like a pincer at the other. You squeeze the trigger and the pincer closes, that device picked up beads in the street, under chairs, and against walls. It made collecting beads so much easier.

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