Credit: Blake Yeager c/o Gasparilla Music Festival

Credit: Blake Yeager c/o Gasparilla Music Festival

The 2022 Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF) will go down in downtown Tampa on Friday-Sunday, Feb. 25-27, according to an email sent out by organizers, who added that the festival will once again happen at Curtis Hixon Park and Kiley Garden.

I can’t think of too many entertainment industry jobs more stressful than talent buyer at a homegrown, independent music festival, but the team at Gasparilla Music Festival seems up to the task.

“We’re actually pretty far along on the lineup,” David Cox, GMF’s Executive Director told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay after the announcement. “We still have a few bands left to book, but we’ve already got the potential headliners.”

Cox added that unlike 2021—when GMF went all out with a rescheduled October three-day festival for its 10th anniversary—2022’s Friday programming will feature a full slate of bands and happenings, including the food lineup at Calle Cocina.

GMF 2022’s move from its usual home of first weekend in March to the last weekend in February also means the nonprofit music festival will happen before Gasparilla Festival of the Arts happening March 5-6 at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park just a short walk down the Riverwalk.

“The move also gets us off that time change where you lose an hour,” Cox said, alluding to the spring-forward time change that always messed up everyone’s post-party bargoing. “That time change was always rough on the staff.”

Tickets for Tampa’s Gasparilla Music Festival 2022 go on sale tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 19 and start as low as $50 for a 2-day early bird ticket.

In 2021, GMF required a negative COVID-19 test or proof of vaccination to get in, but Cox told CL that it was still too early to say what 2022’s entry policy and health protocols will be.

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This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2021.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...