If your brilliant idea for a Halloween costume involves you dressed up as a male porn star with a clever moniker like Slick Hornball, or Private Dangler, or Peter Hump, and your cowboy hat and assless chaps are only the accessories to the 10-foot-long penis you've created from a pair of nude pantyhose, you're probably thinking about going to Guavaween. (No, your idea is not original nor is it even very funny.)
Guavaween wasn't always the area's most socially-acceptable display of gratuitous perversion. It began innocently enough as a Halloween party organized by a group of Ybor City artist-residents. Once the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce took over and made it their annual fundraiser, however, the event evolved and expanded into the monster that it is today, attracting 80,000 or so locals with its huge "Mama Guava Stumble" parade, concerts by local and national acts (Puddle of Mudd, Theory of a Deadman, MC Lyte and Big Daddy Kane, to name a few), the ever-popular Features-sponsored costume contest and its $2,000 grand prize, and all manner of festivities at Ybor's range of bars and clubs.
Because the main event is geared towards adults, organizers also offer the G-rated Guavaween Family FunFest so kids can get in on the fun. Among the diversions are a Safe Trick-or-Treat, spooky storytelling, carnival rides and amusements, arts and crafts activities, live music and entertainment throughout the day, a pumpkin giveaway, a pet costume contest, and the popular Children's Costume Parade and Contest. Guavaween Family FunFest, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., $5, and Guavaween Night of Costumed Revelry, 3 p.m.-3 a.m., $15, Sat., Oct. 25, Ybor City. Shuttles leave Raymond James Stadium, the USF Sun Dome and the Florida State Fairgrounds throughout the day, and the TECO Line Streetcar System offers special Guavaween hours; for more info or a play-by-play schedule, visit cc-events.org/gw.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2008.