One of the many pirates of the female persuasion. Lisa Stark photos.
Touted as the third largest parade in the United States, Gasparilla has been a Tampa tradition since 1905. Generations of parade-goers from Hillsborough County and beyond have braved all sorts of weather to attend. It is estimated that 300,000 spectators turn out every year for this massive event.
Les Belles Femmes.
This butterfly was just one of the majestic sights marching along Bayshore Boulevard.
The IISA Showmen’s Krewe of the Carnival displayed their typical colorful palette.
Creative costuming was the order of the day.
Floats sometimes stared at you wild-eyed along the parade route.
The Rough Riders shared beer, cigars and stories with parade passersby.
Young or old, everyone wanted beads, beads and more beads.
Gasparilla 2016 was a shutterbug’s feast as thousands of colorful pirates, princesses and party people took over Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard in Saturday’s Pirate Parade. With perfect weather, sunny skies, and magnificent floats and costumes, the annual event proved once again (as one bystander put it): “Pirates know how to party!”
Creativity ran amok among the elaborate and outrageous costumes displayed up and down the boulevard. A first-time attendee, I was lucky enough to ride on a Pirate Krewe’s float, giving me a prime view of the scene, which has been touted as the third largest parade in the United States.
Reportedly, the annual Pirate Fest is a Tampa tradition that has been around since 1905, and is based on a mythical pirate that nobody is really sure ever existed — a point that seems irrelevant to the estimated 300,000 spectators that turn out every year for the massive event.
Hosted by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and the City of Tampa, it celebrates the legend of José Gaspar (Gasparilla), a Spanish pirate who supposedly operated in Southwest Florida. The theme of Gasparilla is the “invasion” by pirates on the Jose Gasparilla, a 165-foot-long pirate ship that was built in 1954 specifically for this purpose, accompanied by hundreds of smaller boats that come from all over Tampa Bay to help out.
Once the ship arrives, the captain demands that the mayor hand over the key to the city in a mock ceremony that leads to the”victory parade,” celebrated through the streets of Tampa. Adding to the drama is the legend that the pirate Gaspar, rather than be captured, wrapped himself up in the ship’s anchor and threw himself overboard while shouting, “Gasparilla dies by his own hand, not the enemy’s!”
The number of new Krewes whose members flood the annual Pirate Fest each year is increasing, many of them centering around various ethnic, cultural and historical themes and charity causes. Members spend a great deal of time and money on elaborate costumes, beads and floats while crowds of spectators, both young and old, flock to the scene to collect beads and participate in the festive fun and debauchery.
