{"id":137632,"date":"2026-01-30T13:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137632\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T13:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:38:08","slug":"weather-prompts-gasparilla-invasion-route-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137632\/","title":{"rendered":"Weather prompts Gasparilla Invasion route change"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Gasparilla pirate invasion will look a little different Saturday, due to the expected cold temperatures and high winds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla announced the Jose Gasparilla II is changing<\/a> its route for the invasion that takes place on the Hillsborough River. The Gasparilla Flotilla will now take off from Port Tampa Bay and head directly to the Tampa Convention Center. This is much shorter than the typical route that runs from Ballast Point Park to the convention center.<\/p>\n

Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, which leads the invasion, issued this statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to weather conditions and out of an abundance of caution, Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard, has established a contingency plan for the Gasparilla Invasion scheduled for Saturday.<\/p>\n

The safety and security of the Tampa community remains our highest priority and continues to guide all decision-making. As part of this plan, the Jose Gasparilla II will sail from Port Tampa Bay to the Tampa Convention Center. In addition, our maritime experts strongly encourage captains of local vessels to closely monitor weather conditions and exercise sound judgment when making boating decisions\u00a0on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

With confidence, we affirm that the invasion of Tampa will move forward as custom dictates, and Mayor Jane Castor is advised to stand ready to relinquish the key to the city\u00a0at 1 PM.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local law enforcement is asking boaters who plan to take part in the flotilla to do so with caution.<\/p>\n

After the invasion wraps up, all eyes turn to Bayshore Boulevard for the Parade of Pirates. Community groups and pirate krewes will laugh, sing, dance and throw tens of thousands of strings of beads to those watching from the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

One of those is the Krewe of Blackbeard\u2019s Revenge,<\/a> who will be celebrating its 15th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The krewe says since it formed in 2011, the group has raised over $400,000 for a number of Tampa Bay area charities, including Big Brothers Big Sisters and Shriners Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what brought us together\u2026 philanthropy. Helping in our local community,\u201d Krewe leader Howie Taylor explained.<\/p>\n

The Krewe of Blackbeard\u2019s Revenge was named after one of its founders, Bobby Schatzberg, who was affectionately called \u201cShatzie.\u201d Schatzberg passed away in 2021 and his krewe decided to keep his memory alive by bringing a cardboard cutout of him to every Gasparilla parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to me when people say, \u2018Look, it\u2019s Blackbeard!\u2019 Then they want to take a picture with him,\u201d Krewe co-founder Darrell Haun explained.<\/p>\n

Haun says each of his krewe members pays for their own beads that they then throw into the audience on Gasparilla. He says each year, krewe members pay hundreds of dollars a piece for just beads alone.<\/p>\n

While the cold weather may not seem as fun for those watching, Haun says he\u2019s looking on the bright side. Colder weather means he and his krewe can wear some of their most traditional clothing, that they haven\u2019t had the chance to in years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have jackets between $200 to $400 and we haven\u2019t been able to wear them for probably 5-6 years,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s actually going to be kinda cool to actually wear our full garb.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city of Tampa says to receive 2026 Gasparilla updates, safety tips and traffic alerts, text\u00a0\u00a0GASPARILLA to 888-777.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Gasparilla pirate invasion will look a little different Saturday, due to the expected cold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1564,28,36011,276,115,135,137,136,2032,835],"class_list":["post-137632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-angie-angers","tag-florida","tag-gasparilla-pirate-festival","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}