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It's Time To Call Out Your Krewe

Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

Workers have been installing fences along Bayshore Boulevard in preparation for Saturday’s Gasparilla pirate invasion. The parade will feature 120 floats and high school bands.

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By MICHAEL H. SAMUELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 25, 2008

Updated: 01/25/2008 12:11 am

TAMPA - Avast! For the 104th time, the pirate invasion is upon us.

On Saturday, a flotilla led by mythical pirate Jose Gaspar aboard the Jose Gasparilla will dock at the Tampa Convention Center after attacking the city with cannon blasts. The mayor will hand over the keys to the city and the pirates then will have brunch before parading along Bayshore Boulevard toward downtown while landlubbers joyfully fight for their beaded bounty.

"This is the signature event for the city," said Jim Tarbet, executive officer for Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla.

The parade will feature 120 floats and high school bands along the 3 1/2 -mile route from Bay to Bay Boulevard to Jackson and Marion streets.

Vendors will be set up along the route and there will be three entertainment stages downtown for the Pirate Fest Street Festival.

Shuttle buses will run from Raymond James Stadium to De Leon Street near Bayshore to keep paradegoers from clogging neighborhood streets with their cars. Shuttle tickets are $10.

Parking restrictions and road closures begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and last all day, said Susan Robinson, the city's special events coordinator. City staff has been working since August to coordinate the event.

"This is the largest thing the city does every year," Robinson said.

Neighborhood maps and other information are available at www.tampagov.net.

"My advice is to think ahead," Tarbet said. "Scope out a game plan, work out where you want to be and get there early."

Foul weather sunk last weekend's Children's Gasparilla Parade, but Saturday's forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and highs in the low 70s.

Darrell Stefany, head of EventMakers, which markets and manages Gasparilla, said an old event is making its return to the Gasparilla festivities after more than 40 years.

The Gasparilla March Triumphant: The Return to the Sea will begin at noon Feb. 9 at Channelside. There will be music and entertainment, and the krewe's pirates will once again don their garb and regalia and board the Jose Gasparilla to return to sea.

Stefany said the event, last held in 1964, is being revived as a way to officially end Gasparilla season.

"When we do these sorts of things it just kind of lingers on," he said. "This brings closure to it. It will be nice."

Keyword Gasparilla, to: Share your photos and video clips, and view those from others Get details on all the Gasparilla events, from parades to parties to races View an interactive map showing the parade route, shuttle information and more Play an online

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