Tampa is bracing for an invasion.

No, not the one with the pirates — though they’re coming, too.

The real takeover? The hundreds of thousand of people — and their vehicles — expected to swarm the city’s streets for an unusually busy weekend.

There’s the Gasparilla Pirate Fest, the city’s largest annual party, on Saturday; performances at Benchmark International Arena and the Straz Center for the Performing Arts throughout the weekend; and on Sunday, an outdoor hockey game at Raymond James Stadium expected to draw as many as 65,000 fans.

At a news conference this month, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Gasparilla alone is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of attendees. The city has partnered with dozens of local, state and federal agencies in preparation, she said.

While some say the crush of events will give Tampa the chance to show off, others worry about the tangle of logistics necessary to avoid downtown gridlock: How will the revelers get around town? Where will they park their cars?

“It adds strain to the system,” said Tampa City Council chairperson Alan Clendenin. “But we’re hosting these events because Tampa is a robust city. We’re on the map.”

The weekend’s packed program swirls around downtown.

It kicks off Friday evening with a comedy show from Tampa native Bert Kreischer at Benchmark International Arena. There are also several performances at the Straz Center and an event at the Tampa Convention Center.

Saturday is the main event, with crowds expected to stake out spots along the Gasparilla parade route as early as sunrise. Last year, attendance climbed above 300,000 people.

The revelry begins at 11:30 a.m. when a fully-rigged pirate ship and hundreds of private boats will sail across Hillsborough Bay to invade the city, cannons ablaze.

The parade will follow from 2 to 5:30 p.m. The 4.5 mile route, lined with pirate-clad partiers diving for colorful strands of beads, will snake up Bayshore Boulevard into downtown Tampa.

That evening, as the pirate krewes pack up their floats and city crews begin a massive cleanup operation, the rock band Kings of Leon will perform at Benchmark arena, a mile from the parade’s finish. The Straz Center will host events on Saturday night, too.

And on Sunday evening, the Tampa Bay Lightning will face the Boston Bruins for an outdoor hockey series at Raymond James Stadium. Country star Tim McGraw will perform during the first intermission.The game is expected to draw tens of thousands of local and out-of-town fans.

In past years, busy Gasparilla weekends have caused traffic snarls.

When Tampa hosted the 2001 Super Bowl the day after the pirate parade, spectators numbered more than 750,000. Downtown streets turned into parking lots as football fans and parade-goers mingled.

“I’ve never seen gridlock like that,” Chris Hagerty, then a traffic consultant for the NFL, told the Tampa Bay Times that year. “Except for Bangkok, Thailand.”

More recently, the parade has coincided with hockey games, concerts and Broadway shows. City leaders say they begin preparing for the rush of people and cars months in advance.

Clendenin, who also serves on the Tampa Sports Authority, said the city is “used to” parade-related congestion. And the hockey game, he said, likely won’t generate much more traffic than a regular Tampa Bay Buccaneers game.

Other city leaders are less confident.

Council member Bill Carlson, whose South Tampa district includes much of the parade route, said downtown traffic is “a problem almost every night.”

“We need to manage traffic and pedestrians as if we’re a big city, not a small town,” he said. “It already backs up, without Gasparilla.”

The official recommendation? Plan ahead.

“Know your route, plan your parking, anticipate a short walk and have patience with the more than 300,000 people that will be enjoying the day with you,” Joshua Cascio, a spokesperson for the city’s mobility department, said in an email Wednesday.

Street closures will begin on Friday, with a stretch of Bayshore shut down from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. on Sunday. Dozens of nearby roads will close for shorter stretches of time. For more information, check the city’s road closure map and schedule.

Parking will be available at several downtown and Ybor City garages for $20 to $30. The TECO Line Streetcar and HART Shuttle will be free on Saturday, carrying passengers between downtown and Ybor City.

For information on street parking, check the city’s interactive map.

Attendees can also use ride-share services like Uber and Lyft to get close to the parade route, but will have to walk to reach Bayshore Blvd.