Angelica Mondragon toots her horn for beads while her friend Alexandra Wright rocks on. Credit: Chip Weiner
Angelica Mondragon toots her horn for beads while her friend Alexandra Wright rocks on. Credit: Chip Weiner
Throngs of bead-seeking beer-drinking revelers flooded the streets of Tampa Saturday for the 101st Gasparilla Invasion and parade. Crowds of nearly 200,000 were expected for the melee that annually takes over the streets of Tampa.
For a photographer, the coolest thing about Gasparilla isn't the beads, the beer, or the debauchery. It's the people! The folks who walk in the parade are great. But the cool and crazy commotion of citizenry all along the parade route dressed in colorful pirate garb, most of them pretty hammered, are always rich with personality and a photographer's dream. Gasparilla has become the biggest party in Tampa for a reason: It's fun!
Gasparilla Parade 2016: Jose Gaspar gives up the booty! (15) Credit: Chip Weiner
Susan, a member of the Sea Save Yours SteamPunk Pirate Krewe, says theirs is a nonprofit mission to ensure safe and protected waterways and water safety. They have also launched Operation WOW (Warriors on the Water).
Joe Maher and Zach Zimmer dressed the pirate part for the festivities. Credit: Chip Weiner
Saturday's festivities were wild. The parade started right at 2 o'clock under sunny skies and cool weather. With the pop, pop, pop of guns from the pirates and thumping dance music from the floats, it was a high-energy atmosphere soaked in beer, smoked in cigars, and stoked by hordes of partiers hungry for a 10-cent string of beads.
Barry Kittredge sports a mean beard and a cool collection of pirate booty. Credit: Chip Weiner
Gasparilla Parade 2016: Jose Gaspar gives up the booty! (19) Credit: Chip Weiner
This year’s grand marshal was retired Army Chief Warrant Officer Romulo “Romy” Camargo, a Special Forces officer who was paralyzed during an ambush in Afghanistan.
Dancers from Tampa Bay Tech Titan Band perform. Credit: Chip Weiner
Harmless T Jesterson juggles batons on Bayshore Blvd. Credit: Chip Weiner
Willie Kitchens got the unofficial biggest beads prize for his HUGE string-o-beads. Credit: Chip Weiner
Mario Boskovic of the Tampa Bay Rays crew pops a move for cheering fans Credit: Chip Weiner
John Parker of Bill Mcintyre’s Shooting Stars from Philadelphia. Credit: Chip Weiner
Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla’s newest float spews smoke from a huge skull. The float made its Gasparilla debut on Saturday. Credit: Chip Weiner
Gasparilla Parade 2016: Jose Gaspar gives up the booty! (6) Credit: Chip Weiner
Dozens of reserved seats went unfilled, stretched out along prime parade viewing spots. Controversy is brewing over corporate sponsorships crowding out everyday paradegoers' ability to see the festivities, especially when the seats go unused.
This butterfly was a member of the Caribbean crew marching along Bayshore. Credit: Chip Weiner
Stacey Jones of the USF band plays on the university’s float. Credit: Chip Weiner
Jessica Pullder of Clearwater and friends encouraged others to surrender their booty. Credit: Chip Weiner
Kendra Potsbury said she had enough beads and didn’t want more. She was yelling for BEER! Credit: Chip Weiner
Tiffany Reyes of Tampa snagged tons of beads from pirates wishing her a happy 13th birthday. Credit: Chip Weiner
There was plenty of action after the parade as well. As the crowds left the wet zone (Tampa's one-day permit area that allows for the carrying of alcohol in open containers), intoxication took over. Four men were arrested following a scuffle, a woman dropped her cell phone down a sewer and retrieved it, and passed-out bodies and people throwing up spotted the landscape. Ahh… Gasparilla!
Gasparilla Parade 2016: Jose Gaspar gives up the booty! (13) Credit: Chip Weiner
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a woman being held upside down by her boots in a sewer drain. As I was walking by, she accidentally dropped her phone into the sewer, and she asked her friends to pull the lid off and hold her feet while she lowered herself down to get it. By the time the sheriff's officer in the picture had arrived, she was already dangling upside down. She retrieved the phone, they put the lid back on the sewer, and the party continued!
Young or old, everyone wanted beads. Karen Smith of Tampa shows how it’s done. Credit: Chip Weiner
These party people kept on going after the parade, playing the Flip Cup drinking game. Credit: Chip Weiner
Eric Ondina with Undine Body Art inks an FSU design on Ryan Parker’s arm. Ondina spent the day doing face and body painting along Bayshore. Credit: Chip Weiner
After the parade there were several arrests, including these three men who were led away in handcuffs. Credit: Chip Weiner
Gasparilla Parade 2016: Jose Gaspar gives up the booty! (20) Credit: Chip Weiner
Remnants of the party are scattered along Bayshore Boulevard. Broken strings of beads, beer cans, and food wrappers will all be swept up by the sanitation department by midnight, readying the city for next year's takeover.
The city-wide party continues through March with other parades, art shows, and a film festival.
