A high-energy concert photograph showing the guitarist and vocalist of indie rock band Little Giver performing at Gasparilla Music Festival at Meridian Fields in Tampa, Florida on April 10, 2026. Captured mid-performance, the musician wears dark sunglasses, a white graphic t-shirt, and a black-and-white patterned vest while playing a sunburst electric guitar and singing into a stage microphone. Set against a dark digital LED backdrop displaying red pixelated text, the artist plays on stage under bright daylight.Little Giver plays Gasparilla Music Festival at Meridian Fields in Tampa, Florida on April 10, 2026. Credit: c/o Gasparilla Music Festival

He’s sold just a tiny fraction of the t-shirts it’ll take to purchase the property, but a St. Pete artist is taking a bit of a victory lap after the family that owns long-shuttered Haslam’s Books acknowledged a bootleg campaign to reopen the beloved shop.

“This is more of just like another PR stunt to see if we can get the attention of the family and get them to talk to us,” Filipe Bergson first told Cigar City Sounds after announcing an Aug. 29 concert in the store parking lot. It worked, and the family said people should not attend the unauthorized show.

“We are grateful that so many people still love Haslam’s,” it told St. Pete Catalyst. “We ask people who care about Haslam’s not to put themselves or this property at risk.”

Now, the 32-year-old is inviting the family to feel the love at the official “re-open Haslam’s” concert where songwriter Delaney Staack will play alongside righteous new indie-rock band Little Giver and “The Haslam’s Family Band.”

In a recent “acknowledgment of reality,” Bergson admitted that the store may never reopen. “That’s OK, it’s not up to us,” he added, before saying that fans can still come to the show and be around like-minded people. “You should dress as a book, a cat, a librarian, or a character from a book, or anything related to any of those.”

There’s no cover to see Little Giver, Delaney Staack, and Haslam’s Family Band at The Nest at St. Pete Brewing Co. in St. Petersburg on Sunday, Sept. 13 (donations accepted).

Little Giver by Little Giver

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