The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is a huge parade and a number of community-related events held almost every year since 1904 in Tampa, Florida celebrating the apocryphal legend of Josà ©  © Gaspar (also known as Gasparilla), a Spanish mythical pirate was supposed to operate in Southwest Florida in the early 1800s.
The Gasparilla season in Tampa runs from mid-January to early March and features three large parades. Gasparilla's focus point is the Pirate Parade, which features a friendly invasion by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and a large parade along Bayshore Boulevard to the city center. The Parade of Pirates (often referred to as the Gasparilla Parade by locals) was held on the last Saturday in January. This is the third largest parade in the United States with an economic impact of more than $ 20 million and an average attendance of around 300,000. Another major parade during the season is the Gasparilla Children's Parade, held at Bayshore Boulevard one week before the main parade, and the Sant'Yago Illuminated Knights Parade, hosted by the Krewe of the Knights of Sant'Yago in the historic town of Ybor City two weeks after the main march.
Tampa hosts many other associated Gasparilla or monikered events during the Gasparilla season, including the Gasparilla Film Festival, Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, the Gasparilla Distance Classic, and the Gasparilla Music Festival, with a smaller event change lineup held year after year. The Gasparilla Parade Pirates once coincided with the Florida State Fair, held at Plant Field at the end of a traditional parade route in downtown Tampa. The close relationship between the fair and Gasparilla ended in the mid-1970s, when the fair moved to a much larger location east of Tampa.
Video Gasparilla Pirate Festival
Description
Parades and pirates
Gasparilla Pirate Parade
Gasparilla's theme and focal point is a friendly "invasion" by the mythical pirate José Gaspar and his crew. On the day of the Gasparilla Pirate Parade, members of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (YMKG), accompanied by a fleet of hundreds of smaller private vessels, sailed across Tampa Bay to downtown Tampa at Jose Gasparilla a " long "165 'sea built specifically for this purpose in 1954. The ships were next to the Tampa Convention Center with a lot of cannon shelling, after which the" pirate captain "and his crew descended to sue the mayor's hands. rather than a key to the city in a funny ceremony that had different results in different years. Whether the mayor actually "surrendered", the pirates held their "win parade" through the streets of Tampa, with many walking routes along Bayshore Boulevard.
During the march, members of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and dozens of other crew throw beads, coins, and various souvenirs into a crowd of mostly pirates themed. High school and university areas provide marching bands, majorettes, and training teams, and many local businesses and organizations participate by incorporating intricate buoys and joining krewes in throwing beads and other trinkets into the crowd. In the past, YMKG members will also fire.38 six shooters filled with empty bullets into the air and throw empty shells into the crowd. This tradition was limited in 1992 and ended fully a few years later. However, trained YMKG members still fired loud mini cannons mounted over several parades floating them. The main parade is broadcast every year at WFLA-TV, and it has been since 1955; the WTVT-TV station also closed the parade from 1955 to 1980.
Some semi-theatrical events around "invasion" have become traditional:
- Starting in 1956, a small US Navy ship will volunteer to be "attacked" by small boats from " Ybor City Navy " armed with Cuban bread and hoses stale water. The US Navy restores the "flames" with their own water hoses but will eventually surrender to the Alcalde from Ybor City, which, according to the story, has been hired by Jose Gaspar to clear up the resistance against the impending pirate attack. After the "battle", the naval sailors will be treated to a night in the city. The event was suspended after the September 11, 2001, attacks, but has been sporadically held since, with the American Victory SS/US shipbuilding ship usually standing in the US Navy.
- The Outward Voyage Home is the peak event of the Gasparilla season which was revived in 2008 after it was discontinued in 1964. During this ceremony, Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla's pirate returns key town to the mayor, then board the ship Jose Gasparilla and "sail" across Tampa Bay while partying continuously along the Tampa Riverwalk. The Outward Voyage usually takes place on the first Saturday in March.
Children Parade
The Children's Gasparilla Extravaganza is usually held on Saturday before the main march. The parade route also runs on Bayshore Boulevard, but shorter than the main Gasparilla parade. It's billed as a "family friendly" event, unlike during the Pirates Parade, alcohol is not allowed along the parade route. The Children's Parade was first held in 1947 and has grown over the years, and now includes a similar mix of Krewes and buoys built by local businesses and organizations. It also features participants from various youth organizations, and children of Krewe members often ride on buoys throwing beads. A variety of activities and events related to children are held in downtown Tampa in the hours before the Children's Parade.
Sant'Yago Knight Parade
The Sant'Yago Illuminated Knight Parade (sometimes referred to as "Gasparilla Night Parade") has been organized since 1972 by the Krewe of the Knights of Sant'Yago. It was held in Ybor City's historic neighborhood on Saturday night, usually two weeks after the Pirates Parade in mid-February. The Knight Parade has a mixture similar to the participants as the Pirate Parade, although most buoys are illuminated brightly since the show begins after dark. Despite having a reputation as the most mature "adult-oriented" parade of the Tampa Gasparilla season, organizers have been trying to reduce drunkenness and mischievous behavior in recent years and have promoted it as a family friendly event, with some success.
Additional events "Gasparilla Season"
In addition to the Gasparilla Children's Parade (first held in 1947), the Sant'Yago Knight Parade (first held in 1972), and numerous galleries, parties and fundraisers organized by individual crews, Tampa has long hosted various Gasparillas other related events from around January to March. One of the first was the Gasparilla Open, a PGA Tour stop sponsored by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla from 1932 to 1935. The 1935 edition had the biggest card prize on the PGA Tour that year ($ 4000), but with the deep depth of the Great Depression, the tournament stopped after. It's back in 1956 as a Gasparilla Invitational Tournament, an amateur competition that has been held every year since then.
Other large-scale events held during the Gasparilla season include Gasparilla Festival of the Arts (founded 1970), Gasparilla Distance Classic (established 1978), Gasparilla Film Festival (founded 2006), and Gasparilla Music Festival (founded 2013). The ranks of small event changes held in Tampa during the first months of the year also use the name Gasparilla.
Many events, organizations, events and businesses that use the name "Gasparilla" or "Gaspar" are not affiliated with Ye Mystic Krewe from Gasparilla or the City of Tampa, because these names are not legally controlled by any organization. While some feel that this "co-branding" helps promote all the events that Gasparilla monopolizes and the Tampa area as a whole, others feel that excessive use of names will "simplify what they mean", and that the potential for failure or misstep of an event or organization can have a bad effect on others.
Economic impact
The average crowd in the main march was over 300,000 people, with over 1,000,000 attending at least one Gasparilla event. According to some studies, Parade Pirates has a local economic impact of more than $ 22 million, and combined events bring in more than $ 40 million. The parade is the third largest parade in the US. Starting in 2015, Visit Tampa Bay, a local tourist bureau, embarked on a multimillion-dollar promotional campaign in northern USA, Canada and Europe to attract more visitors to Tampa during "Gasparilla Season".
Maps Gasparilla Pirate Festival
History
Inspiration
The Gasparilla Festival theme was inspired by local legend JosÃÆ'§ Gaspar, a Spanish naval officer who turned to piracy. Different legends say that he was a nobleman and advisor to King Charles III of Spain who was exiled after a romantic scandal in a Spanish court or an ambitious young officer in the Spanish navy who was encouraged to rebel by a cruel captain. Whatever the reason, the stories agreed that Gaspar stole in the late 1700s to the almost uninhabited Florida coastline and set up a secret base on Gasparilla Island in Port Charlotte. Gaspar is said to have looted many ships and brought many female hostages in nearly four decades wandering from Louisiana to the stolen Spanish stunned aircraft carrier, Floridablanca . His exploitation abruptly ended in 1821 when, in order to avoid being caught by a schooner of the USS Enterprise, he wrapped himself in anchor ship chains and threw himself into the sea shouting "" Gasparilla dies with his own hands, not enemies! "
Apart from this colorful history, there is no evidence that a pirate named "Gaspar" or "Gasparilla" ever operated off the coast of Florida. Archives in Spain do not mention Gaspar as a Spanish court member or officer in the Spanish navy. The United States Navy has no record of any interaction with a mythical pirate or someone claiming to be a member of his crew, and Gaspar's name does not appear in the official court records of piracy trials of the era in which he was supposed to operate. In fact, researchers in Spain and the United States have not found any evidence of filing that Gaspar really exists, and there is no physical evidence of the sinking ship or "graceful" headquarters ever found in Florida.
The first written account of José Gaspar is in a 1900 advertising brochure for Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad Company, part of Henry B. Plant's rail system that ran into Plant's Boca Grande Hotel in Charlotte Harbor. The brochure greatly adorned the tall tales associated with the late John Gomez, a famous local fisherman and guide, to create the story of Gaspar pirate, "The Last of the Buccaneers". It also mentions that neither Gaspar nor his crew ever took his immense treasure trove, which should still be hidden somewhere on Gasparilla Island, which is certainly the location of the Boca Grande Hotel. The subsequent stories of Gaspar pirates are based on fantastic brochures, including some misrepresentations in books about Florida's history or piracy in the Caribbean.
Pirate Festival
Origins
The first Gasparilla Parade was held in May 1904, after community editors Louise Franc Dodge and Tampa's customary director, George Hardee combined a dashing pirate legend with elements of the New Orleans Mardi Gras/Carnivale festival. to give May Day a relatively quiet celebration, a new theme with local connections. The first Gasparilla "invasion" was on a horse, with the first marine invasion coming in 1911.
Pirate Parade
The Gasparilla parade is usually held in conjunction with other local events before World War I, so the dates are varied and sometimes not held at all. When back in 1920 after a hiatus of war-time, it became a stand-alone event held in February. This timetable coincides with the Florida State Fair, which began in 1924 at Plant Field near downtown Tampa. The event merged, and for half a century, the parade route ended in a fair place, drawing thousands of spectators into a joint celebration. The Florida State Fair moved to a wider area east of Tampa in 1976, which was the same year as the Lee Roy Selmon toll road was built near the mouth of the Hillsborough River, preventing Jose Gasparilla from upstream voyages happened for decades. Since the mid-1970s, pirate ships have docked on the south side of downtown Tampa on Gasparilla Day, and the Pirate Parade route typically runs from a starting point near the southern end of Bayshore Boulevard back to the city center, about four miles in total.
The Gasparilla parade was held on the second Monday of February in decades after another hiatus during World War II. It was an official holiday in Tampa, with local schools and government offices closed for the day along with several businesses. In 1988, the Pirate Parade was moved to the first Saturday in February to make it easier for residents of other communities to take part in the celebrations. Since 2005, the event was held on the last Saturday of January.
Krewes and controversy
Most of the celebrations during the Gasparilla season in Tampa (including parades and other events before and after), organized by "krewes", are private clubs of local residents organized into social and charity organizations inspired by New Orleans krewes. Krewes Tampa organizes social events and parties throughout the year, often to raise money for charities and favorites. Krewes tend to be most active during the Gasparilla season, with social events starting as early as the end of December.
"Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla" (YMKG) is the first krewe in Tampa, and its members have been organizing the Pirates Parade since the first Gasparilla festival in 1904. YMKG membership includes civilian leaders and businessmen from Tampa, who for decades meant that the organization exclusively white and men, causing a growing hatred among African-Americans and other groups. The Krewe of Venus (the only female krewe consisting mostly of YMKG member relations) joined the celebration in 1966, and Krewe of Sant'Yago (formed by leaders of the Tampa-based Tampa community of Ybor City) formed in 1972, but the vast majority of the inhabitants of Tampa are left out, and some observers question the image of local elite dressed as pirates and pretending to plunder the city.
This problem grew into a hot controversy in 1990, when Krewe and the city plan to move Gasparilla for several weeks to coincide with the Super Bowl XXV, to be played at the Tampa Stadium in January 1991. The City and National Football League put pressure on. in the Krewe of Gasparilla to accept African-American members before the next event, but the organization refused and canceled Gasparilla instead
The city of Tampa is hastily collecting a replacement parade called "Bamboleo", which is billed as a "multicultural festival" and does not include pirates. Rainy days help dampen the crowd, and his successor is considered "failing". Then in 1991, the Krewe of Gasparilla agreed to accept blacks and allow more crew to participate in the parade, and Gasparilla returned for 1992
In 2001, Tampa again hosted the Super Bowl (Super Bowl XXXV), and the city again moved the march to coincide with the match. On that occasion, there was no controversy, as the integrated Krewe of Gasparilla joined more than 30 different crews for the parade, which drew the estimated recording crowd of 750,000.
The number of new crew has continued to increase in recent years. Many of these crews are organized around various ethnic, cultural, and historical or favorite charity themes. Members often spend a lot of money on elaborate costumes, beads, and buoys, such as Mardi Gras crews. Currently, more than 50 krewes line up in each parade, with smaller crew participating in rotation due to the limited number of available slots. Many of the same Krewes - big and small - also participate in the Gasparilla Kids Parade and the Sant'Yago Knight Parade.
References
External links
- Gasparilla Pirate Festival - Official Site
- Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla Records at University of South Florida
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments