Gasparilla festivities including day and kids parades, the film festival and distance classic have all been rescheduled lately, so it’s not surprising to see another Gaspy tradition—the Knights of Sant' Yago Knight Parade in Ybor City—get postponed, too.
The nighttime parade, which normally happens a couple weeks after the Gasparilla day parade, is now set for May 1.
“We're looking forward to the days when we can safely stand this close together,” Knight Parade officials wrote on a photo caption. “We're postponing the 2021 Knight Parade to Saturday, May 1 in the interest of our community's health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Last month, Gasparilla officials pushed the day parade back to April 17. Shortly after that, Gasparilla International Film Festival told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that it was rescheduling for May, and just last week, the Gasparilla Distance Classic pushed its races back to Mother’s Day weekend.
While the Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF) has yet to even announce its dates, we can pretty much expect the event to push its dates—usually in mid-March—back as well.
“… even in an unusual year such as 2021, our intention as always would be to take place after the Gasparilla Invasion and related festivities,” GMF Executive Director David Cox told CL in a text message last month. “We hope to make an announcement soon along with info about tickets being released.”
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This article appears in Dec 24-30, 2020.