TAMPA BAY, Fla. — Various sections of the world mark the arrival of fall in unique strategies.
In some destinations, the modifying hues of the local foliage generate breathtaking normal hues that attract admirers from miles all around. In others, people rejoice the harvest with festivals and carnivals.
What You Need to have To Know
- Tampa Halloween parade/party Guavaween commenced in Ybor Town in 1985
- Guavaween happened off and on right until 2018
- The event will not return for Halloween 2021
- In spite of COVID-19, there are even now loads of Tampa Bay fall occasions scheduled
Here in Tampa Bay, we never really have a attractive tumble change in leaf color, or a huge, economic system-sustaining slide harvest. Heck, we genuinely really don’t have a slide. But lots of of us do take part in an yearly finish-of-summer months tradition by noting the calendar’s progression from August into September and asking the exact dilemma:
Are we gonna have a Guavaween this calendar year?
When on a time, Guavaween was Tampa’s premiere Halloween get together. Originally a costumed “parade” down the sidewalks of historic 7th Avenue, Guavaween officially commenced in 1985 as an Ybor City Chamber of Commerce-backed fundraiser for a area theater enterprise. (Unofficially, some say the party was a civic co-opting of the functions organized by the upstart provocateurs of Tampa’s Artists & Writers Team as an underground choice to Gasparilla’s moneyed shenanigans.)
Guavaween grew exceedingly preferred over the ensuing a long time, hoping out numerous formats to accommodate increasing (and ever more varied) crowds when mitigating drunken buffoonery: Closing off 7th and acquiring the parade in the street. Adding are living audio. Having absent reside music. Producing it extra of a bar/location crawl. Fencing in a bare town block to make a submit-apocalyptic stockade of drunken buffoonery. Sponsors, promoters and concepts arrived and went some many years, there wasn’t a Guavaween at all.
In 2018, pursuing a 5-calendar year crack and a couple of tries to return a kindler, gentler Guavaween to its costumed-parade roots, the issue just petered out.
That has not stopped these who both try to remember Guavaween fondly or never obtained a prospect to attend from asking, yr soon after calendar year, if it is coming again. They are Tampa Bay’s Get together Linuses, faithfully awaiting the return of their Excellent Pumpkin, in whatever kind its future iteration may possibly choose.
Alas, 2021 will not be their calendar year, in accordance to resources who’ve labored on Guavaween in the past. It’s not just the pandemic some just see the competition as element of one more time, in advance of there had been 50 % a dozen large functions to choose from on any offered tumble weekend (and perhaps just before Ybor Town sacrificed so a lot of its character and lifestyle on the altar of clubby, generic “nightlife experiences” and residential units).
COVID or not, that doesn’t signify there aren’t lots of significant seasonal solutions, on the other hand. Several newer and similarly storied Tampa Bay traditions are returning from last year’s cancelations — listed here are 5 that are properly truly worth a reveler’s awareness and, at push time, still slated to go on irrespective of the Delta variant.
GASPARILLA Music Pageant
Tampa Bay’s biggest and coolest homegrown audio fest returns to Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park this 12 months with three times of performances that involve hip-hop icon Nas, southern/jam-rock legends Gov’t Mule, indie faves Parquet Courts, retro-rap hitmaker Youthful MC and dozens far more on a number of levels. GMF is working to continue to keep patrons harmless by requiring evidence of COVID vaccination or a latest detrimental test at the gate. “We are on the lookout ahead to a enjoyment weekend with some remarkable live new music,” reported Gasparilla Audio Foundation’s David Cox. Oct. 1-3. 600 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa.
OKTOBERFEST
Municipalities, event planners and craft breweries alike are putting their individual spin on the common German harvest and beer competition with a great deal of reliable brews, food items, trend and lifestyle. Test out our operating list of Oktoberfest functions for data, dates and aspects.
TAMPA TATTOO ARTS Convention
The Tampa Conference Centre plays residence to all things inked subsequent thirty day period when it hosts this massive body-artwork con. Various large names in the tattoo earth will be making appearances, like several contestants from the popular Ink Learn truth levels of competition sequence. Oct. 22-24. 333 S. Franklin St., Tampa.
TAMPA PIG JIG
Now in its tenth yr, the annual Tampa Pig Jig combines a heated cooking competitiveness, scrumptious foods, are living songs and a spirit of philanthropy to Tampa’s Julian B. Lane Park on the Hillsborough River. This occasion regularly raises inspiring sums for NephCure Kidney International, and this year’s musical lineup functions previous Hootie & The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker and eclectic roots-alternative loved ones outfit Judah & The Lion, amongst lots of other individuals. Sat., Oct. 23. 1001 N. Blvd., Tampa.
SHOPAPALOOZA
About on the St. Pete aspect of the bay, the celebration of regional unbiased makers and enterprises known as Shopapalooza is slated for Thanksgiving weekend at Vinoy Park. “We’ll be following all CDC recommendations in area at the time,” says founder and LocalShops1 principal Ester Venouziou. “Shopapalooza is cost-free and open up to all, but this year we will be fencing the full park to improved management crowds and/or do temperature checks, if necessary. We’ll also have excess wash stations, and really encourage vendors to have cashless payment possibilities.” Nov. 27-28. 701 Bayshore Dr. NE, St. Petersburg.