Busch Gardens Tampa Bay hosts in Mardi Gras festivities through March 3, 2024. Credit: Photo via BuschGardensTampaBay/Facebook
The Gasparilla day parade might have already passed, but you can always collect more beads at Busch Gardens’ annual Mardi Gras celebration (which tends to be more family-friendly than its flagship party on the other side of the Gulf Coast.)

From now until early March, the popular theme park hosts New Orleans-style, brass bands, Cajun-inspired specialties at a variety of its restaurants and kiosks, a “bead balcony” and large Mardi Gras parade featuring entertainers and stilt walkers every Friday-Sunday.

Just a few of the exclusive food and drink offerings that you can find throughout Busch Gardens—that may inspire you to embody the spirit of Fat Tuesday—include andouille sausage po’ boys and Cajun BBQ short ribs from Esplanade Street Bites, jambalaya from Jackson Square and the “Bourbon Street Daisy” cocktail from The Voodoo Lounge.

All of Busch Gardens’ Mardi Gras festivities and entertainment run through Sunday, March 3  are included in the price of park admission. Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.

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This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2024.

Kyla Fields is the food critic and former managing editor of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay who started their journey at CL as summer 2019 intern. They are the proud owner of a charming, sausage-shaped, eight-year-old...