Review: Gasparilla Music Festival stages solid, soggy, debut at Tampa’s Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park [PHOTOS]

“They called us Friday and said they needed somebody to rock this shit last minute,” Big Boi told a rain-soaked Tampa audience on Sunday night.

Flanked by Sleepy Brown on a wet stage, the Grammy-winning rapper and architect of the Southern rap sound, was called in to replace Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF) closer Lake Street Dive, which cited illness in its 11th-hour dropout.

His hour-long set—complete with co-last-minute headliner Killer Mike—felt like redemption after weather canceled headlining entertainment on day one of last year’s festival, which was supposed to see Killer Mike’s Run the Jewels project hit the stage.

And his response to GMF’s call for help embodied the can-do spirit of the festival’s founders, organizers, vendors, army of volunteers, plus the devotion of those who stuck it out until the end.

“We said fuck yes,” Big Boi exclaimed as he launched into a set of solo hits, Dungeon Family classics and Outkast gems. “We rock this shit rain or shine.”

The 13-year-old nonprofit festival—which is run by a foundation that works year-round to refurbish used musical instruments and put them in the hands of underserved Bay area school kids—has had a rough time catching any breaks over the last few years, but has soldiered on without complaint in staging its signature event.

GMF 2020 was the last large public gathering in Tampa before a global pandemic. Organizers were then forced to push their three-day March 2021 festival all the way to November, leaving them with just three months before a return to downtown Tampa’s Kiley Gardens and Curtis Hixon Park for a magical three-day festival in February 2022.

Then the City of Tampa denied a permit for GMF to use Kiley Garden in 2023, citing a 2021 evaluation that discovered water intrusion issues that required a minimum of $9 million-$11 million in base repairs to address conditions “critical to long-term service of the plaza and parking structure.”

So GMF shook it off and staged its 2023 festival across several stages in downtown Tampa, with its longtime home of Curtis Hixon Park as the centerpiece. But storms canceled headliners on day one of the party, kneecapping what should have been a perfect goodbye to the Curt.

GMF made the decision to move just a click upriver to Julian B. Lane for 2024.

The cliche says home is where the heart is, and for GMF, home is apparently underneath wherever they decide to launch the signature sky-high orange balloons symbolizing the festival’s arrival.

Organizers, who had written the blueprint for how to throw a festival at Curtis Hixon and Kiley, adapted their festival map for 2024 at Julian B. Lane which is significantly larger than the Curt and Kiley.

All the hallmarks of GMF ported over to Julian B. Lane relatively seamlessly, albeit spread out a little further across the new site.

There were four stages in corners of the park, including a more intimate stage in the shadow of the park’s boat house. Dozens of beer taps, special sponsor and VIP areas (complete with an homage to Tampa’s long lost Rock-It Club), kids areas, all powered by cheery volunteers ready to find answers to any question. Bryan Nichols’ signature etched lanterns hung inside tents. Festival board member Ty Rodriguez also continued his tradition of traversing the grounds without any shoes.

On Friday, GMF unlocked a new Friday formula as a huge crowd slowly filed into the park, and lined up for cocktails, for a lineup anchored firmly in EDM, whether it was livetronica from Big Gigantic, a straight up club set from Surf Mesa, or a hybrid of the two from Louis the Child which performed a playground set while an arsenal of lasers turned the sky above the mainstage crowd into a sea of light.

Unfortunately, that sky opened up not long after gates opened on Saturday and never really let up until the tail end of Big Boi’s Sunday closer set.

Still, Saturday opened with a familiar shower of joy, praise and blessings care of Dr. Kevin Parrot who, for the last 13 years, has brought his gospel choir to open Saturday festivities. The happiness stuck around for anyone who stuck the rain out and was almost palpable as locals—like Ashley Smith, and festival debutante Whataboutmomma—continued GMF’s tradition of bringing both seasoned and new local acts to the stage.

Pet Lizard, also making its GMF debut, played to the Replay Guitar Stage’s biggest crowds who moshed and bounced along to songs from the group’s must-listen debut Intrusive Thoughts, plus new bangers like “Silhouette,” which is actually about getting into a fight on the Riverwalk.

Footballs didn’t fly through the air on the mainstage field like they do some years at GMF, but families who braved the cold and rain found a few dry patches on the new Fortune Stage to have a game of touch football.

Most importantly, GMF’s lineup throughout the entire weekend brought ample opportunities for music lovers to just immerse themselves in a wash of sounds new and old all while the rain gently rolled off bodies covered in all-weather gear and ponchos.

A drop count for the weekend was not made available, but seeing thinner crowds on Saturday was something of a disappointment because GMF had everything in its place. The wheels got to roll with the Friday night crowd, and the festival infrastructure deserved to be pushed to its limits the same way the festival’s diehard fans pushed themselves throughout the weekend.

Now Tampa Bay will have to wait a little over a year for GMF to open the doors on its home again. Attendees will once again bring their music-loving souls to the table. Let’s hope that mother nature lets the sun shine in, too, because it was a memorable Gasparilla Music Festival for everyone that showed up.

And while it was Big Boi’s first GMF appearance, he even shared a hilarious memory about one visit to a Tampa strip club. “The stripper,” he said, laughing. “Man, she had a fake eye, and she took that thang out.”

It was a good time, and you just had to be there to understand.

See more highlights from Gasparilla Music Festival 2024 below.

Killer Mike and his Midnight Revival choir, with Big Boi and Sleepy Brown

Killer Mike—who swept the rap category at the Grammy’s this month—brought along a five-piece “Midnight Revival” choir for his part of the Sunday headlining set. The 48-year-old activist rapper told stories about how his family has tentacles in the St. Petersburg area and how one of his cousins, Marcus, died before he could see Mike rap.

“His energy is here,” Mike said.

The crowd brought its energy to the stage, too, as Killer Mike worked through the powerhouse, gospel-fied highlights from his new album Michael in between Big Boi and Sleepy Brown dropping Dungeon Family classics and Outkast megahits.

At one point in “Down By Law,” as the Midnight Revival sent praise into the air, Mike rapped, “I am a beautiful wonderful being” over and over again. It was a good mantra for the rain-soaked crowd having a blast, and the right way to end the festival.

Friday night’s EDM vibe

Longtime GMF fans, and critics, pointed out how the festival lineup leaned heavily on EDM and polished algorithm-friendly rock, but the gamble seems to have paid off. The crowd aged down—looking more like a Friday night at The Ritz or TK Lounge instead of a rock club—and they danced all night.

Surf Mesa’s exhilarating set just might have forced some to add about an hour’s worth of material to their respective house music playlists. Big Gigantic—which played small Tampa stages like Crowbar more than a dozen years—could have easily been a successful headliner as the packed-in crowd watched Dominic Lalli play saxophone between throwing down heavy, chest-rattling production.

Hometown boy Aidan Bissett, a Jesuit Tampa grad with a major label deal, had the crowd crouch during a decrescendo near the end of “Grocery Store Girl,” and expressed how GMF was only the second festival he’s ever played, the first being some little get-together called *checks notes* Coachella.

DJ Sandman

Once again, GMF tapped the city’s deep well of DJs for its first act, and hearing Tampa’s godfather of hip-hop spin Tupac, Goodie Mob, Common and Outkast’s “Da Art of Storytellin’” set the tone for a weekend of good vibes.

The mushroom house

Bliss Wellness’ inflatable mushroom and related offerings were the landmark at the Replay Guitar Exchange stage, which played home to a soulful set from local acts like Pusha Preme, plus longtime Tampa rapper Aych who brought the next generation of the city’s rap scene to the stage.

Alien House

Tampa electronic duo Alien House was among the first acts to play GMF’s Row House stage. On one hand, the stage felt a bit separated from the rest of the festival, but texture and production from Justin Myers and Anthony Tarallo rolled effortlessly onto the Hillsborough River illuminated by the Fortune Taylor bridge. There were a lot of moments during GMF 2024 where you longed for the views of the Kiley Garden amphitheater, but seeing festivalgoers chill out on the boat house docks might be a new GMF tradition.

Moving the stage inside the River Center for Sunday, wasn’t a terrible move (although it did lock out anyone without a sponsor badge), as evidenced by the Tampa City Ballet joining Nick Ewing Duo.

Tried and true

Anyone looking for a throwback to the GMF of old should not have looked any further than a barn-burning Sunday set from Eddie Roberts, who brought The New Mastersounds to Tampa in 2017 but arrived this year with a new band, The Lucky Strikes, which featured the powerhouse bass and drum duo of St. Petersburg’s Galbraith sisters Taylor and Ashley (who played GMF’s streetcar concert series last December).

And NOLA, too

While the rain never started pouring until 5 p.m. on Saturday, the drizzle made itself known early on. But diehards still poured in and they were greeted with familiar faces The Rumble featured members of festival alum Cha Wa, and brought a New Orleans flavor to a festival known for its affection for music from the Crescent City. Rebirth Brass Band’s set served as the touch of New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival that every music festival needs. Equipped with a seven-piece repertoire, the ensemble took a hell of a lot of pride in its roots and brought along some pretty pristine harmonies, too.

National act, local flavor

Lifelong GMF-ers are no stranger to Roosevelt Collier’s monster slide, but the guitarist’s band featured local flavor this time around, thanks to the addition of music teacher and multi-instrumentalist Chris Sgammato on saxophone.

Beach Weather

Beach Weather—only two years back from hiatus—was on the main stage when the rain really started to get bad. Frontman Nick Santino joked, “We are Beach Weather, but this is not,” adding how he wouldn’t brave this kind of rain for any artist. “If Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were still around, which was my favorite band, I wouldn’t go if it were raining,” Santino admitted, while thanking devoted fans still standing close to the stage, completely uncovered.

Feeling Goodie

By the time Goodie Mob hit the Fortune Stage, the field was soggy, and only the true fans remained. Still, the group of Southern hip-hop icons rolled effortlessly through a set that hit all the classics as Khujo bobbed and weaved through Goodie classics while CeeLo’s head steamed in the dropping temps.

Kids

Kids are resilient, and some of them showed up the GMF’s Sunday Kid Fest complete with instruments to play, tie-dye stations and more. At this point some GMF babies are teenagers, and it’s heartwarming to see a new generation of kids join the rotation.

Soulshine

While Kelsey Hickman played rowdy country-rock on the Replay Guitar stage, Steelin’ Peaches brought the spirit of the Allman Brothers to a crowd that essentially said, “Who needs sunshine when you have Soulshine?”

Yonder-ful

After a full weekend of EDM, alt-rock, and hip-hop, Yonder Mountain String Band was just what we needed to even out genre representation. There was still a borderline torrential downpour during its delayed, hour-long set, but the small-but-mighty crowd square-dancing to “Two Hits and the Joint Turned Brown” and “Dancin’ In The Moonlight” in the park’s nearly swampy grass had to have gone down as a core memory for some.

Gone Kingfishin’

Over yonder during at the exact same time as Yonder, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram—equipped with a black Gibson Les Paul—and his three-piece backing band was tearing it up on the Fortune Stage. The 25-year-old closed his set with a bluesified cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe,” and also took a mid-set break to hit a joint for a few minutes. He’s the future of blues, and it’s promising to see the festival embracing acts like his before they become B.B. King big.

Photographers

As an expansion of GMF’s Recycled Tunes Program (which provides donated instruments to schools), head of photography Dan Schuman has been mentoring high school students through the opportunities of getting into the photo pit (and in some cases, onstage) during the festival, and capturing priceless moments, whether it was the moment Killer Mike joined Big Boi on Sunday night, or Beach Weather’s Reeve Powers slurping a Liquid Death. The idea has been going since 2017, and some of Schuman’s mentees have won awards, been granted scholarships, and have even been asked to go on tour with artists who need an on-site photographer.

“We don’t ask these kids for anything,” Schuman told Creative Loafing Tampa. “We just ask them to listen, try to crush it, and don’t drop your camera.”

Though some water damage did occur from Saturday’s torrential downpour, the kids trucked on nonetheless, and there was never a shortage of photographers in any of the festival’s photo pits—and they’re the only reason we have these photos to share today.