{"id":389857,"date":"2026-09-04T01:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389857\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T01:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:31:20","slug":"gulfports-annual-geckofest-party-brings-10-hours-of-untamed-fun-to-the-waterfront","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389857\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulfport’s annual Geckofest party brings 10 hours of untamed fun to the waterfront"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AA cropped photo showing the G. Gordon McFly skateboarding gecko statue in Gulfport, Florida on May 3, 2026. Credit: Del Harper \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Inspired in part by the United Kingdom\u2019s Monster Raving Loony Party, Gulfport resident Marlene Shaw had a pretty simple vision for the seaside town\u2019s Labor Day weekend party. She saw \u201cmusic, color, costume, and characters who treated politics like performance art,\u201d <\/a>according to a new piece published in the town\u2019s indie newspaper the Gabber.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomewhere between British eccentricity and American festival magic, an idea took root: a festival and parade that let Gulfport show off its downtown, its businesses, its whole delightfully whimsical self \u2014 with everyone, absolutely everyone, invited to walk in it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Now in its 26th year, Geckofest returns this weekend and is themed as a music awards show, encouraging locals and visitors to dress like their favorite musician as festivities unfurl for 10 hours across downtown.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no cover for Geckofest 2026 happening in downtown Gulfport on Saturday, Sept. 5.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article appears in August 27 \u2013 September 02, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead his 2016 intro letter\u00a0and disclosures from 2022 and 2021.\u00a0Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Ray Roa\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cropped photo showing the G. Gordon McFly skateboarding gecko statue in Gulfport, Florida on May 3, 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[155969,155970,202,204,203,199,201,200,72020],"class_list":["post-389857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-downtown-gulfport","tag-geckofest","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-things-to-do-in-tampa-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389857","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=389857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}