Gasparilla Parade, also known as the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, is a Tampa-based yearly event with more than a century-long history.

Gasparilla became a time-honored tradition in 1904 after local planners decided to make the legend of Gasparilla into the theme for that year's May Day celebration, said Gasparill

Every year, an estimated 300,000 participants come to Tampa for the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, a mock attack by a band of pirates called Ye Mystic Krewe. The pirates’ plot is simple: storm the shores, take the city’s key, and parade down Bayshore Boulevard.

Gasparilla Pirate Fest is set to invade the shores of Tampa on Saturday. Dillon Stefany, vice president of the event fest, discusses the preps for the parade.

Arr! Gasparilla in Tampa is Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. Attendees can witness the "pirate invasion" as Jose Gasparilla ship sets sail at Hillsborough Bay

The driver of the truck responsible for the terror attack in New Orleans, who killed 14 people, visited Tampa twice before his rampage, the FBI said.

Pirate Fest: The fest will take place along the Riverwalk in downtown Tampa with live music on two stages before and after the parade in Curtis Hixon Park and MacDill Park from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. After-parties will be going on all night in downtown Tampa and Ybor City.

Bayshore Boulevard will be packed from starboard to port with Pirates on Saturday for the annual Gasparilla pirate fest. It is a Tampa tradition, and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to celebrate the annual parade of pirates.