Tampa's Annual Pirate Festival

The annual Mardi Gras for Tampa's pirates.

A weird festival, a weird day.

It's a day of college students everywhere in their fishnet tights and bandanas with their red cups and many, many beads.

It's a day of pirate ships being towed by trucks throughout Downtown Tampa, with beads flying off the side of the floats.

It was my first year in Tampa, so naturally, I had to attend Gasparilla and see what all the fuss was about.

With the day starting at 9 AM and not finishing until about 7 PM - that's a lot of pirates and a lot of beads!

According to the Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, the pirate invasion of Tampa originally stemmed from Jose Gaspar, a pirate who terrorized Florida's West Coast in the late 18th Century. A statue of him is now situated on Gandy Boulevard at Westshore.

The drinking, dancing and bead collecting has originated from 1904, with a few differences. More so the fact that the Jose Gasparilla ship now doesn't sail upriver for each annual festival - thanks Selmon Expressway!

The festival element of Gasparilla comes from the merging of the Florida State Fair and Gasparilla parade. They both ended up being on the same weekend back in 1924, hence the merge for all of Tampa's visitors that weekend.

Tips for next year?

Be prepared for the festivities to start early in the AM. It's probably the only day of the year that it is socially acceptable to begin pregaming before noon, so take advantage of it!

The beads! The beads! If you didn't have any before, you will as soon as you arrive! Fellow pirates will throw you beads from their boats, across the street whilst you are waiting for the parade, they'll hand you them as you walk past.

It may seem chilly when you start the day, but remember that even though it's January, it's still Florida in January. Either have a layer on that you can take off, or just brave the breeze early in the morning. Believe me it gets toasty when you're waiting for that parade!

Finally, don't use all your energy on getting beads from the first 50 floats. The parade this year had over 130 floats, I used all my energy jumping and screaming for beads at the beginning that I barely made it to the last float! (The last floats usually have the best beads as well - best till last!)

One thing I learned from Gasparilla?

As crazy as it seems to have a pirate festival in Tampa, Florida, it's a lot of fun and you don't want to miss the entire city dressed up in beads and bandanas for one day every year!