David Cox, longtime Executive Director for GMF, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the festival set for Feb. 14-16 at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park, has been postponed.
He cited fallout after a weather cancellation in 2023 as the main contributor to the postponement. “Rain last year didn’t help,” he added, referring to last February’s soggy, yet solid, debut at a new venue.
A new date is still forthcoming, Cox, said, explaining that the decision was made to ensure the sustainability of the 12-year-old festival.
“This isn’t the end of GMF at all,” Cox said. “An entire generation of Tampeños has grown up at this festival, and we just want to make sure GMF is the kind of festival that our kids’ will take their own children to.”
He added that more details would be available in the coming days.
It’s the first time GMF has been postponed since 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced organizers to postpone the festival to the fall—and then stage another festival a few months later in March 2022.
“The challenges of the past two years have put a tremendous financial strain on our Foundation, and by choosing to recoup our losses now, we aim to protect our ability to produce a high-quality event that you and our community can be proud of,” GMF wrote on its website. “We are committed to using this time to re-evaluate, recover, and begin planning for our next exciting and successful festival.”
Refunds are already being processed and should be completed within the next two weeks, the statement added.
“Thank you once again for the tremendous continued support. We look forward to brighter days ahead and to coming together for the next spectacular Gasparilla Music Festival in the near future,” GMF wrote.
Finding a new date in the 2025 calendar might be tough at the increasingly-busy Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park, since GMF utilizes pretty much every square inch of the grounds—from the picnic pavillions on the south end to the football field and River Center on the northern end.
GMF’s situation isn’t unique in the larger context of American music festivals and comes at a hard time for organizers across the globe.
While the homegrown event’s status as a nonprofit means that the bottom line serves the music-education-focused Gasparilla Music Foundation, last year was horrible for a number of festivals in the U.S. and abroad.
Florida’s Suwannee River Jam and Roots Revival festivals bowed out of the scene last year, along with Okeechobee, which used to happen around the same time as GMF.
NPR points out that domestically, Burning Man failed to sell out for the first time ever, while Coachella saw a decline in attendance. Chicago’s popular Pitchfork Music Festival threw in the towel on 2025, too. New York’s Electric Zoo, Firefly in Delaware, and Las Vegas’ Life Is Beautiful were also among the nearly 100 music festivals to shut down last year, according to Music Festival Wizard.
Overseas, more than 60 music festivals were canceled in the U.K. in 2024, while Lollapalooza Paris and Sideways Festival in Helsinki called it quits.
UPDATED 01/09/24 3:30 p.m. Updated with an official statement on the GMF website.
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This article appears in Jan 9-15, 2025.