Gasparilla Pirate Festival

According to a legend, Jose Gasparillo, the last of the Pirates, ransacked more than 400 ships. For 40 years, he was keeping all the Atlantic at bay. But the region he influenced the most was the coast of the Gulf of Florida.

The lands from the northernmost point of western Florida to the southernmost one in Cuba were the main pirate possessions. While being a pirate, Gasparillo gained a reputation of a fearless and fierce man. No one stayed alive at the ship captured by the pirate. However, there were exceptions. The notorious pirate never killed women. Gasparillo was taking them as concubines or offered their wealthy relatives to redeem them. Girls were waiting for the ransom on the island of Captiva. According to locals, that is why the island got such a name.

Let us move back to 1904. Tampa officialdom invited the pirate as a patron of the outcast to their annual holiday. There were held secret meetings in which 40 members of the first Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla Club planned a sudden “attack” on the city during the main parade. Dressed in pirate uniforms, they blew into town on horseback. The first invasion was so successful that the townspeople asked to make it an annual tradition.

Every year in January, residents and guests come to the streets of Tampa to take part in the parade. Boats, ships, pirates, and fun flood the city.

Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla Club has more than 700 outstanding leaders of the city. They organize a traditional invasion on the Jose Gaspar pirate ship. After the invasion, people go through the city throwing sweets and drinks into the crowd.