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Float ban takes shine out of Guavaween parade, some say

Staff file photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER (2008)

"We've been down to just a handful of floats," says Tom Keating, president of Guavaween sponsor Ybor City Chamber of Commerce.

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By GEORGE WILKENS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 24, 2009

TAMPA - A parade without floats is like a day without sunshine, declared the leader of a group which has participated in Guavaween's annual procession along Ybor City's Seventh Avenue.

Members of some groups, known as krewes, expressed dismay after parade organizers on Wednesday announced motorized units no longer will be allowed to participate. The parade has been a Guavaween mainstay since the late-October event's inception in 1985.

Indirectly, the floats are victims of the rising cost of staging the parade and a sagging economy which has reduced attendance. But organizers also say the change will help transform the sometimes bawdy parade into an event more befitting Ybor City's emergence as a gentler historic neighborhood of restaurants and bars.

Tom Keating, president of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the event that is the biggest fall night for the neighborhood restaurants and bars, doesn't anticipate adverse effects from the ban, and hopes it will mark a return to the parade's roots.

The ban ends the need for metal "bike rack barriers" separating the crowd and the procession, eliminating the $10,000 expense of renting, erecting and removing them, while, hopefully, making Guavaween a friendlier, interactive event, Keating said.

"It was designed to be an interactive event, and things got too corporate," drawing floats designed for other parades, he said.

Participation by krewes and floats has been dropping anyway, Keating said. "We've been down to just a handful of floats." Guavaween is primarily a street party, with the Mama Guava Stumble Parade "kind of a sidebar" to the daylong event, said Keating, president for nearly five years.

Teri Cox-Hickey, president of CC Event Productions, promoter of the chamber of commerce's biggest fundraiser, said Guavaween had four floats when she became involved 15 years ago. There were 13 last year. "It's never been a float parade," she said.

Attendance has hovered at 30,000 to 35,000 in recent years, after peaking at 50,000 to 60,000 a half-dozen years ago, she said.

"We've lost some of our fall participants to other areas," Keating said, a reference to Fantasy Fest in Key West.

In another cost-cutting move, the fenced footprint of the event will be reduced, cutting security expenses, Keating said. "I think everybody looks at cost; that's an issue," he said. "But I think this really takes us back to our roots," a creative event launched by an Ybor group of costumed actors, artists and writers.

With parade entry fees waived and many prizes being offered, Keating said he hopes to lure zombie units, vampire groups, fraternities, sororities and even costumed people on foot-powered scooters. "We're hoping they're going to do crazy stuff that's safe," he said.

Applications still are being accepted for the Oct. 31 event.

But the ban will eliminate some.

Scott Carroll, incoming president of the 500-member Rough Riders, polled those among the ranks planning to represent the organization at Guavaween.

"The general sentiment was without our float, which is really our base of operations, we'd pass," Carroll said. The float has an onboard bathroom and carries everything from refreshments for the troops to beads for the crowd.

"We didn't really have much interest in participating without our float," he said. "It's a little party within itself on our float."

"We have not communicated with other crews and made the decision based on our own interests," Carroll said. Lauding Guavaween as "a good event," he added, "Maybe in the future there will be some middle ground, or we can participate and still maintain the character of the parade."

The Rough Riders are regular participants in what is arguably Florida's best-known Halloween parade, Fantasy Fest, taking one of their floats more than 400 miles to the 10-day celebration in Key West.

Kate Daley of the Krewe of Santa Margarita, the president who feels no floats equate to a day without sunshine, calls floats an absolute necessity for parade participants.

"You don't come to a parade empty handed," but with a purse, sunscreen, jackets, vests, beads and more, she said. "For a parade krewe, a critical part of the infrastructure is their float," she said.

Guavaween admission is $17, up $2 from last year, but $12 advance tickets are available through Oct. 1 online: www.cc-events.org

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at (813) 259-7124

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