Sat 30 Jan – Sun 31 Jan
Coming soonTampa's enormous pirate invasion. Nobody should drive home from it, and you won't.
Going as a group? Charter the van · Other events
Know someone who'd come?
Every share is a seat closer.
Last year
The trip
Gasparilla has been Tampa's big day since 1904. It starts on the water: the Jose Gasparilla II leads a fleet of hundreds of boats up Hillsborough Bay to the Tampa Convention Center, and the mayor hands the key to the city to the captain of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla. Then the Parade of Pirates rolls, about 140 floats, krewes and marching bands on a four and a half mile route up Bayshore Boulevard into downtown. The festival fills the Riverwalk too, with stages at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and MacDill Park.
The City of Tampa expects more than 300,000 people on the streets. Tampa is four hours from Tallahassee, and that is no drive to make at the end of a day like this one. So we do not make it that night. The van takes you to Tampa, you spend the day with the pirates and the night wherever you have booked, and the van brings you home the next day. Nine seats, one driver, and nobody in your group has to be the one behind the wheel.
0 of 9 seats booked. 4 more seats and the van runs.
A seat is $110.00. Pay now, and if the van does not fill, every cent comes back. It leaves in 92 days.
Photos
Gasparilla does not keep a public photo gallery. Its Instagram and Facebook are the place for pictures of the ship, the floats and the crowds, and for news on the day.
No ticket needed
Gasparilla is a free community event. You do not need a ticket to watch the invasion or the parade, and there are plenty of places along Bayshore Boulevard and downtown to see it. What we sell is the ride: from Tallahassee to Tampa, and home again the next day. Your bed for the night is yours to book.
The organisers also sell reserved bleacher and chair seats on the parade route, and a brunch at the Tampa Convention Center where the ship comes in, through Gasparilla Treasures, their own store. All of it is optional, and only they sell it.
Follow it
Two days
Getting on. Be at your pickup place a few minutes early. It is an early start and a long drive, the van leaves on time, and it does not come back for a second run.
Your pickup place. You tell us where at checkout, anywhere within 15 miles of Tallahassee, and the van comes to you.
In Tampa. You are dropped in Tampa for the day. The ship can be watched coming in from downtown, Davis Islands and Harbour Island, and the parade from many spots along Bayshore Boulevard and downtown. In the viewing areas on the route, a spot is yours if you get there early and stand in it: chairs and blankets are fine, tents and roped-off areas are not. Outside food and drink, coolers, glass and pets are not allowed.
The night. Where you stay is yours to book, so book it before you book your seat. We do not arrange rooms.
Coming home. The next day the van comes back for you at the time on your booking. Put that time in your phone before the parade starts.
