Glove plays Tropical Heatwave at Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida on May 6, 2023.
Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

Tropical Heatwave returns to Ybor City this weekend, continuing community radio station WMNF-Tampa’s now more than 40-year tradition of bringing an eclectic slate of music to the historic district. As the radio station’s loyal following gears up for the party at the Cuban Club, here are eight things a Tropical Heatwave newb might want to know before getting their freak on.

Tickets to WMNF’s Tropical Heatwave happening Saturday, April 24 at the Cuban Club in Ybor City are still available and start at $50.

Tropical Heatwave started as a fundraiser and was stylized after Ybor City’s famed Artists and Writers Ball

Bud Lee was named Life Photographer of the Year in the late-‘60s after his coverage of the Newark riots of 1967 saw him capture an image of an 11-year-old boy shot in a spray of bullets. As his career wound down, Lee found himself in Ybor City, he taught public school students in Plant City and cultivated a generation of Bay area artists all the way up to his passing in 2015. Lee and David Audet’s Artists and Writers Group—itsef borne from an admiration of artist parties in Paris in the 1920s—staged its ball at the Cuban Club, with a new theme each year. It was a precursor to Tampa’s long defunct Guavaween, and also the inspiration for the first Tropical Heatwave in 1982.

The first Tropical Heatwave lineup included six local bands

That’s according to the Tampa Tribune which previewed the festival set for Saturday, May 22, 1982 by listing six bands including Zenith Nadir, a skinny-tie-wearing band that was known for bringing sloppy, sweaty and fast rock to long-shuttered venues like the Buffalo Roadhouse on the corner of Armenia and Buffalo Avenues (the latter is now known as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard). The Fallopian Tubes, an all-woman sextet playing a mish-mash of blues, rock, pop, jazz, punk and country were also on the lineup along with Tampa punk band Voodoo Idols, A New Personality, Your Relatives, and The Backbeats. The Tribune added that “reggae music, theatrical performances, a psychedelic light show, silent films, jugglers, comedy…” were also scheduled. Tickets were $5 in advance and $6 at the door. Homegrown acts, once again, are a huge part of the Heatwave lineup in 2026, with blues powerhouse Betty Fox and Americana hero Have Gun, Will Travel among the highlights alongside Ladies Rock Camp alum Hex Appeal.

WMNF Tropical Heatwave 1982
Article from May 20, 1982 The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida)

The festival’s name was inspired by Carmen Miranda, and the food used to be as basic as it could get

“At the first Tropical Heatwave, we had a Carmen Miranda look-alike contest, and it was almost all gay guys in their glory. I don’t think very many, if any, women entered,” Janine Farver, WMNF station manager when Heatwave first started, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay back in 2006. Miranda’s performance of “Heatwave,” a song by Ethel Waters, inspired the name. The station sold microwaved, homemade cheese and pepperoni French bread pizza and Italian ice, and Farver vividly remembers someone dropping a cooler of beer which then cascaded down the Cuban Club steps. There’ll be plenty of libations this year, along with food trucks parked in the venue’s El Pasaje Plaza.

The first Tropical Heatwave was sold-out, but attendance estimates vary

In the same 2006 oral history for Heatwave’s 25th anniversary, attendance at the festival was reported between 1,000-3,000 people. WMNF volunteer and festival co-founder John Durble does remember it being a sell-out that made the station a nice chunk of change. Three years after the station first went on the air, Durable remembers his thoughts when people started pouring into the Cuban Club. “…it was like a Sally Field moment: ‘They love us; they really love us.’ We got the sense that night that the future was bright.” Heatwave remains the station’s signature event of the year. Festivals are more expensive than ever to book, and its success will help determine its viability.

Tropical Heatwave’s first big artists included Bo Diddley and Sun Ra

Linda Reisinger started at the station in ‘79 as the host of “Friday Nite Crusin’,” which was on the airwaves for 26 years, and in 2024 she told CL about driving up to Hawthorne in Alachua County to knock on Bo Diddley’s door and ask him to play. “He took us out to his shed where he practiced with his guitar, and he introduced us to his daughters who had a band then,” Reisinger said, alluding to The Diddley Darlings. The famed guitarist played Tropical Heatwave in 1985, attracting attention to a festival that would go on to sell out in 1986 (prompting people to hop the fence, according to former program director Randy Wynne), while bringing acts like Sun Ra and his Alter-Destiny 21st Century Omniverse Arkestra (1987), Andrew Bird (2001), Mofro (2005), Carolina Chocolate Drops (2011), The Hold Steady (2014) and more.

The 2026 Tropical Heatwave lineup includes WMNF favorites and new artists alike

Tropical Heatwave headliners this year include the return of ‘90s rock band Cracker (which played 2011), plus high-energy jam scene darling Keller Williams, globetrotting party band Sonora Tukukuy, and Idaho songwriter Eilen Jewell, another Heatwave alum who is actually taking a break from touring after her current tour. In comments to Marcie Finkelstein on WMNF’s “Words & Music” program, Williams noted how her 12-year-old daughter, Mavis, needs her at home. “It’s a tough decision to make, because nobody likes this decision,” Jewell added, noting how her decisions affect the livelihoods of others like her bandmates. “I don’t even like it. It’s like a bitter pill that has to be swallowed.”

Tropical Heatwave went on hiatus 10 years ago

Speaking of bitter pills, in 2016, a year after being hired for the job, then General Manager Craig Kopp (now a reporter and host at WUSF) announced plans to put Tropical Heatwave on ice, citing $40,000 in losses and rising costs for bands as part of the “difficult decision.” Kopp ended up a pariah at the station, not just over Heatwave, but his firing of late station co-founder and news director Rob Lorei. After helping WMNF do a Heatwave Royal Caribbean cruise in 2018, Kopp resigned in 2019. Talks about a May 2020 return died with the arrival of the pandemic, but in 2023 Heatwave finally restarted with a 16-band lineup.

Still volunteer-driven, Tropical Heatwave continues in 2026

Putting on music festivals in these times is no joke. The concert world is stacked against indie promoters, and the volatility of hard costs continue to cloud any organizers ability to forecast overhead. WMNF, powered by an army of volunteers, however, soldiers on. Doors for Tropical Heatwave this Saturday open at 5 p.m., with the Gulfport marching band kicking things off on the patio shortly thereafter. Nine bands will play between the patio and indoor cantina stages while the Cuban Club theater hosts spoken work and poetry. The ballroom hosts a silent disco. Kids under 12 get in free, too.