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Is Gasparilla really 'free?'

 
Members of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla toss out beads to festival-goers in boats at the 2012 parade. The cost of bringing a boat to the event has climbed, along with other activities. [Luis Santana | Times]
Members of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla toss out beads to festival-goers in boats at the 2012 parade. The cost of bringing a boat to the event has climbed, along with other activities. [Luis Santana | Times]
Published Jan. 27, 2016

TAMPA — Drew Hines, a Plant City dentist, attended his first Gasparilla in 2008 as a student at the University of Florida. He and some friends strolled right up to the parade route and watched along the Platt Street Bridge.

"I really, actually, fell in love with the city," Hines said.

He moved to Tampa in 2011 and for three years lived along Bayshore Boulevard, where he had easy access to the festivities. Then he moved elsewhere in the city and in 2014, he returned to Platt Street to watch the parade.

There, he found a large set of bleachers, blocked off by a fence and covered with a tarp.

"You had to have bleacher seats to even watch the parade from there," Hines said. "It felt a lot more congested.

"(It) sort of left a bad taste in my mouth about how they were selling every viewing spot," he said.

Gasparilla's "free" parade didn't feel so free anymore.

Organizers still tout it as such. But as the revelry — and the crowds — have expanded over the years, some say Gasparilla has evolved into a corporate-sponsored behemoth, and it's pricing some locals out of the fun.

"The amount of people coming to this event, and the amount of people who demand a good seat, has grown," said Darrell Stefany, president of EventFest and project manager for the Gasparilla Pirate Festival events.

Simply showing up costs nothing (unless you consider parking fees, which can climb to $20 per car, if you're lucky enough to snag a spot). There is no entry gate, no admission fee.

It's the full experience, some argue, that has gotten so expensive.

ALL IN: A Gasparilla 2016 guide and insider tips

This year, the festivities start a day early, with a pre-invasion celebration Friday night that features a concert headlined by The Swon Brothers at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. It costs $20.

On Saturday, the main event, the costs keep mounting.

For those hoping to watch the invasion from the water, docking at the Marjorie Park Marina on Davis Island requires a $25 registration fee, then an additional $4 per foot based on the length of the boat. All 15 slips sold out in the first 15 minutes of open registration, said marina assistant Ed Barnes.

Far more expensive is a spot at the Tampa Convention Center, where the Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla docks its ship and invades the city. A one-time security fee of $160 is required up front for rental slips, plus a minimum of $160 per day, or $4 per foot per day.

And boaters must reserve a spot for a minimum of three days.

It wasn't always that pricey, said Andrew Powell of Apollo Beach, who has been participating in the boat invasion with his family since 2000.

Two years ago, it cost him $120 to dock his 30-foot Cabine cruiser at the Convention Center, and he could rent for just one day.

Now, it would cost him at least $640 to dock his boat. When the price spiked, Powell's family just started cruising in for the invasion, then turning back toward Apollo Beach to avoid the fees. But that didn't feel like Gasparilla to them anymore. So after this year, they won't be joining in at all.

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"The boat invasion can be fun, but after so many years, if you can't dock and relax and enjoy Gasparilla, it's not as fun anymore," Powell said.

Some festival-goers have expressed the same frustration about seating for the 4.5-mile Parade of the Pirates.

Along the route, which stretches down Bayshore Boulevard into downtown Tampa, there is room to view the pirates from the curb, for free, but space is quickly claimed by early birds willing to stake out spots before dawn. The parade begins at 2 p.m.

The prime seats are those in the bleachers or beneath a corporate-sponsored tent.

It costs $45 (plus tax) to reserve one of the 5,000 to 6,000 bleacher seats open to the public. Many of the corporate-sponsored tents take up prime real estate along the parade route, a perk if you're invited inside. But that will likely cost you, too.

This year, Gasparilla has 32 corporate sponsors with contracts that reach into the "upper five figures," Stefany said. He declined to quote specific prices.

"Special events, big events like this are much more business than they used to be," he said.

It's up to the corporations to decide what to do with their tents. Some wine and dine clients; others sell tickets to the public.

"There's no experience like it," Stefany said. The reaction from festival-goers who watch the day unfold from the inside, he said, generally goes like this: "Wow, this is like a hospitality area with a $5 million entertainment budget."

It's an experience brag-worthy enough to attract tourists from across the globe, but the growth has left some locals feeling shortchanged.

Stefany admits it's difficult to balance the two objectives.

"It's not easy to do, frankly, but it's something we're proud of," he said.

Since the 1990s, when the first corporate tents popped up at Gasparilla as a way to attract the Super Bowl crowd, the footprint for public viewing and purchased seating has remained the same, Stefany said.

"You may argue there are more people coming to Gasparilla than the 1990s, and you're probably right," he conceded.

If the corporate tents or the bleacher seats or the pre-invasion concert or the boat slips don't price you out, there's a $95 brunch ($75 for children) you can attend Saturday at the Tampa Convention Center.

Then there are the side items — the beads, the beer, the bottle service at prime-viewing bars like Jackson's on Harbour Island, where a VIP table can cost as much as $1,000.

"It's a really expensive deal, and it's all to get a strand of beads," said former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman, a longtime critic of Gasparilla who was responsible for cleaning up much of the debauchery during her time in office in the 1980s.

What's driving the climbing costs?

People are willing to pay, Stefany said.

Contact Katie Mettler at kmettler@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3446. Follow @kemettler.