{"id":246641,"date":"2026-04-25T21:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/246641\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:43:07","slug":"more-than-150-floats-planned-to-roll-through-desoto-grand-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/246641\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 150 floats planned to roll through DeSoto Grand Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; An estimated 100,000 people are expected to line Manatee Avenue for the DeSoto Grand Parade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Organizers say more than 150 floats will enter this year\u2019s parade. One of the floats will be from the Krewe of F-Troop Tampa, a non-profit known for their float \u201cFort Courage,\u201d a reference to the 1960s military sitcom F-Troop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe hospitality, the crowds \u2014 it\u2019s always a fun, interactive crowd while we\u2019re parading,\u201d said Rob Fisher, president of Krewe of F-Troop Tampa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/04\/24\/sarasota-police-carry-torch-special-olympics-celebration\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/04\/24\/sarasota-police-carry-torch-special-olympics-celebration\/\">Sarasota Police carry the torch for Special Olympics celebration<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The parade draws families from across the county. Jeff Nace, president of the Hernando de Soto Historical Society, said the DeSoto Grand Parade combines history, heritage and heart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019re probably going to throw somewhere between two and a half to three million beads. We\u2019re the second largest night parade in the southeastern part of the United States, so it\u2019s just something we love to build on,\u201d Nace said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Fisher said he has been part of the parade for more than 20 years. The float will be stocked with beads, stuffed animals, glow sticks and moon pies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe entire top of the float is loaded with different types of throws, everything from cases of moon pies to rubber ducks and all kinds of stuff,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Fisher said three krewes from the Panhandle will ride with his group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThey\u2019re going to come over here, they are going to be riding with us today, so we get to expose them to the area and the crowds, and it\u2019s just a fun event all the way around,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe smile is what makes everything worthwhile,\u201d Fisher said.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; An estimated 100,000 people are expected to line Manatee Avenue for the DeSoto Grand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[108389,108392,108391,108390,108393,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-246641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-desoto-grand-parade","tag-hernando-de-soto-historical-society","tag-krewe-of-f-troop-tampa","tag-manatee-avenue-bradenton","tag-night-parade-florida","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246641","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=246641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}