Two other major parades during this time are the Gasparilla Children's Parade, which is held on Bayshore Boulevard one week before the main parade, and the Sant'Yago Illuminated Knight Parade, which is organized by the Krewe of the Knights of Sant'Yago in the historic neighborhood of Ybor City two weeks after the main parade. [28][23][3][15][22], The first known written account of Jos Gaspar comes from an early 1900s brochure for the Gasparilla Inn Resort in the recently established tourist town of Boca Grande, Florida on Gasparilla Island in Charlotte Harbor. Last year about 1,500 boats joined in on the invasion. [14] While scattered seaborne attacks by privateers and others were still an occasional issue when Gaspar supposedly arrived at Charlotte Harbor in the 1780s, the navies of Britain, France, Spain, and the newly independent United States were actively patrolling nearby waters, making it improbable that a pirate could successfully harass shipping for decades at the enormous scale claimed in the various stories about Gasparilla. Thats my uncle and my mother going to Coronation back in 1950, said Chapman as he held up a photo taken during the Krewes Coronation Ball many decades ago. Despite the fact that the Annual Gasparilla Festival started in 1904 to celebrate "Pirate . At least a portion of the Gasparilla Parade of Pirates has traversed Bayshore Boulevard into downtown almost since its inception. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. However, many children of krewe members don costumes to ride aboard floats and toss beads and trinkets to the crowd, and various youth organizations such as sports and dance teams also participate. Though there is no evidence he actually existed, Gaspar was adopted patron rogue of this new Tampa celebration. Since then organizers have worked to diversify the festival and include more krewes for all races and genders. [17], Currently, over fifty krewes march in the Gasparilla Parade of Pirates, with smaller krewes participating on a rotating basis due to the limited number of available slots. [42][43] Besides promotional material and contact information for the Gasparilla Inn, the brochure prominently featured the "Story of Jose Gasparilla," the "last of the Buccaneers" who it said had terrorized the Gulf of Mexico for almost 40 years. The brochure was produced and widely distributed by the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway, which built the resort at the end of its rail line. Gaspar and his crew then stage a "victory parade" featuring 50 additional krewes, over 100 floats, and dozens of other community organizations along a route traveling 4.5 miles (7.2km) down Bayshore Boulevard, throwing beads and other trinkets to a crowd of about 300,000. He claimed to have seen Napoleon as a youth in France (or, alternatively, was drafted into Napoleon's army), sailed the world as a cabin boy on a merchant ship, served as a scout for the U.S. Army during the Seminole Wars, served as a coastal pilot for the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, was involved in filibustering (and perhaps pirating) in Central America and the Caribbean, and escaped a Cuban prison just before his scheduled execution, among other remarkable exploits spread out over the entirety of the 19th century. [7], The Gasparilla Pirate Festival has been popular in Tampa since its inception and has grown into the third largest parade in the United States. Is Tampa's Gasparilla pirate festival origin in fact, or fiction? [3][45][42], In 1923, author Francis Bradlee obtained a copy of the Gasparilla Inn brochure and, assuming it was factual, included Gaspar in a book he was writing about piracy in the West Indies. Lemoyne described Gmez as a "colorful" eccentric who claimed to have been a pirate in order to sell fake treasure maps to "the gullible" for a "fancy figure". Dozens of other Krewes have joined the festivities over the years, which has grown into of one of the largest parades in the United States. For men, getting the chance to don a pirate costume and join the invasion could be a very valuable opportunity. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. [3] The brochure also claimed that the bulk of Gaspar's vast treasure cache "still lies unmoved" somewhere in the vicinity of Boca Grande. The following year was the first invasion by boat. It all started in the newsroom of the now-defunct Tampa Morning Tribune, where Society Page Editor Louise Francis Dodge sought to . Lane Riverfront Park to . Description. In the first portion of the show we speak with Rodney Kite-Powell, the Saunders Foundation Curator of History at the Tampa Bay History Center. Courtesy of the Florida Archives. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. In the late 1800s, Gmez lived in a shack with his wife on otherwise uninhabited Panther Key, a small spit of land near Marco Island in the Ten Thousand Islands region of Southwest Florida. [12] Gaspar had decided to retire after almost four decades of pirating, and he and his crew gathered on Gasparilla Island to split the wealth he'd gathered throughout his career, which some versions of the story value at the enormous sum of $30 million. Accommodations | The Gasparilla Inn & Club European nations began to make a concerted effort to suppress piracy in the early 1700s, and by 1730, every major pirate of the "golden age" era had been killed. [7][27][22], Between his propensity for telling entertaining stories and his real skills as a boat pilot and outdoorsman, Gmez became a popular fishing and hunting guide along Florida's west coast, leading to his being mentioned in several issues of Forest and Stream, an early conservationist magazine. King CVIII Richard McKinley Chapman III & Queen CVIII Caroline Grace . The Gasparilla Pirate Festival (often simply referred to as "Gasparilla"[1]) is a large parade and a host of related community events held in Tampa, Florida almost every year since 1904. Gasparilla began as a surprise "pirate invasion" on horseback during the city's May Day festival in 1904. If you're looking for something to do that combines culture and the outdoors, the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts is the hot ticket this weekend. This is an all-day event though and so much more than a parade. [7], There is no evidence to support the claim that several local place names in southwest Florida originated with Gaspar, as many appeared on maps drawn long before his supposedly arrival in the 1780s. [10] Gaspar has also been associated with Henri Caesar and "Old King John", other semi-legendary pirates for whom there is little to no historical evidence. On Sanibel Island a conference was held by all the pirates, and with the exception of Gasparilla, Baker, Caesar, and Old King John, all sailed away to be heard of no more. Here's how to map out your day! "Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla" (YMKG) came together informally to stage the first pirate "invasion" in 1904 and has evolved into a registered non-profit organization which has organized the Gasparilla Parade ever since. Initially, they modeled themselves after the Krewe of Rex and were knights or reflected royalty. Burger King brings back fan-favorite item for limited time Situated along Garrison Channel in downtown Tampa, Sparkman Wharf (615 Channelside Dr, Tampa, FL 33602) is Tampa's new outdoor waterfront destination. Gasparilla, the city's most popular annual event, centered around a pirate-themed parade, resulted from a conversation seeking to spice up an existing parade.. Reporters and bloggers, alike, Can the Democratic Party regain strength in Florida? He was popular in the court, but when he spurned one lover for another, the jilted lady levied false charges against him, often said to involve the theft of the crown jewels. They wanted to jazz up Tampas annual May Day celebration and decided to combine elements of a New Orleans Mardi Gras festival with new traditions inspired by legendary pirate Jose Gaspar. So, let's get to it! Part of the weekend programming includes the Emerging Artists Program, which provides . [7] While several purported biographies of the pirate state that the nickname "Gasparilla" means "Gaspar, the outlaw" in Spanish, it is actually a feminine diminutive meaning "little Gaspar" or "gentle Gaspar", a moniker more likely to be attached to a pacifist priest than a bloodthirsty buccaneer. Recent examples include September 2019 episodes of the TV series, This page was last edited on 30 January 2023, at 17:26. [58] The city of Tampa hastily put together a replacement parade called "Bamboleo", which was billed as a "multicultural festival" and did not include pirates. Gaspar is said to have taken many ships and held many female hostages for ransom while preying on shipping in the Gulf of Mexico from Louisiana to the Spanish main aboard his flagship, the Floriblanca. Gasparilla spans generations for their families and for others. [ IVY. Also, they saw pretty early on that this could be a neat attraction and a neat tourist draw to a city that didnt really have much of a tourist industry aside from the Tampa Bay Hotel and the fact that the railroad did come here. [11], The membership of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla is overwhelmingly made up of Tampa's business and civic leaders, which meant that for many decades, the organization was exclusively white and male, leading to some resentment from unrepresented groups. Tampa producer and Blair Witch director are making movies about military, Brain-eating amoeba infection kills person in Florida, Florida bill targeting unions emerges in House, 2019 Tampa Bay Rays spring training schedule. When efforts were made by local leaders and activists to integrate in 1991, the Krewe of Gasparilla canceled that years parade but allowed it in 1992. 'Ted' DeLaVergne Jr. & Queen Anne McGowin Robbins, King David R. Murphey III & Queen Lavinia Hannon Touchton, King James W. Warren III & Queen Laura Elizabeth Ferman, King Bruce A. Samson & Queen Janice Coxwell Ferman, King Warren Frazier & Queen Evans Barritt Romano, King Henry G. Ennis Jr. & Queen Nancy Kaye Frankland. "Supersized Gasparilla" saw a record attendance of about 750,000, but though the event was generally well received, the city has opted not to reschedule the parade to coincide with subsequent Superbowls played in Tampa due to the serious challenges posed by large crowds and snarled traffic. The pirate ship needs to be moved into place to begin the invasion at 11:30 a.m. Tugboats help move the ship, which leads a flotilla of over 1500 smaller boats. The Tampa Bay area's annual pirate festival, Gasparilla, first began in 1904 when the Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (YMKG) planned a surprise "mock pirate attack" on Tampa.
Peter Brookes Crossroads, The Homestead Chronicles Alison Keller Blog, Articles K