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Knight Parade Spreads Its Annual Share Of Pirate Fun

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By NATALIE SHEPHERD

nshepherd@wfla.com

Published: February 14, 2009

Pirates and partiers packed Seventh Avenue in Ybor City on Saturday night for the Sant' Yago Illuminated Knight Parade.

Jack Hammer came dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.

"We try to get into character as much as possible for Gasparilla," he said.

He and his date, Barbie Muritori, celebrated Valentine's Day at the parade. They consider it a romantic night.

"We come out every year. We're not part of the parade; we just love to come out and show and do," Muritori said.

Plenty of others came for the excitement. Arlene Ballagh traveled all the way from Houston to take part in the pirate party.

"I heard that it's the most exciting place to go on this night," she said.

More than a hundred floats traveled the parade route. The thousands of people along Seventh Avenue stretched out their hands begging and cheering for beads.

"Everybody's having fun," said Sherri Dillender.

She paused to describe the rowdy crowd.

"Yeah, they're not wild, well, they are wild. They're supposed to be wild," she laughed.

Rachel Northcut, who's in her early 20s, said she has been coming to the parade since she was 6 years old. She has a trick for getting beads.

"Go online and get the list of all the krewes," she recommends. Then she holds up a different sign for every float that goes by. One minute, she's cheering for St. Florian, the next for the Krewe of Charlotte de Barry.

"It's very successful," she said.

Natalie Shepherd can be reached at (813) 225-2703.

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