If you’re planning on visiting downtown Tampa or the Bayshore Blvd. areas, you might want to know where to park and where you should avoid driving. Here are a few things we already know.
You don’t want to risk getting your car towed. One way to avoid that is to park in one of the public parking facilities. Here are some of the public parking locations from the City of Tampa and the parking rates.
- Tampa Convention Center Garage (Tampa St. & Brorein St.) open 24/7 – at a rate of
$15 per vehicle upon entry. - Ft. Brooke Garage (Whiting St. between Franklin St. & Florida Ave.) will open at 7:00
a.m. at a rate of $15 per vehicle entry. - Poe Garage (Ashley St., south of Cass St.) open 24/7 – at a rate of $15 per vehicle upon
entry. Due to the parade route, this garage will close from 1:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m.
Customers will not be able to enter or exit this garage until after 6:00 p.m. - Twiggs St. Garage (Twiggs St., west of Nebraska Ave.) open 24/7 – standard hourly
rate with a $9 maximum. - Centro Ybor Garage (5th Ave. and 15th St.) open 24/7 – standard hourly rate with a $9.00
maximum. - Palm Ave Garage (13th St. and 9th Ave.) open 24/7 – standard hourly rate with a $9.00
maximum. - Royal Regional Lot (Tampa St. & Fortune St.) will be open at 7:00 a.m. at a rate of $10
per vehicle. - Scott Street Lot (Morgan St. and Scott St.) will be open at 7:00 a.m. at a rate of $5 per
vehicle. - On-Street Meters will be enforced from 8:00 a.m. until midnight.
You can also guarantee a spot is available for you. City of Tampa prepaid parking is available here.
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Also, for the pirate invasion and parade, some roads will be closed. Roads you can expect to be closed are:
- Bayshore Blvd. – Will close On Friday, January 28th at 10 p.m. from Gandy Blvd. to downtown Tampa
- Azeele St. – Will be closed from S. MacDill to Plant Ave. beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 29th
- Brorein St. – Will close at 7 a.m. on January 29th
- Ashley Dr. – Will close beginning at 9 a.m. on January 29th
- Kennedy Blvd. – Will close from S. Plant Ave. to Florida Ave. beginning at 9 a.m.
- Kennedy Blvd. – Will close from N. Boulevard to S. Plant Ave beginning at 3 p.m.
- Kennedy Blvd. – Will become one way from N. Boulevard westward beginning at 4:30 p.m.
- Franklin St. – Will close from Platt St. to Harbour Island beginning at 7 a.m.
- The Selmon Expressway Off-ramp – Exit to Florida Ave. and to Channelside Drive will close at 5:30 a.m.
- W. Cass St. – Will close from N. Boulevard to N. Tampa St. 1:30 p.m.
- W. Tyler St. – Will close from Cass St. to N. Tampa St. beginning at 1:30 p.m.
Click here for a more complete map of road closures by the City of Tampa.
Another option if you don’t wish to deal with driving to the Gasparilla festivities is using HART. Click here for what HART is doing in downtown Tampa and Ybor City on January 29th.
[Source: City of Tampa]
Gasparilla Tampa Bay Events
Gasparilla Parade of Pirates
The Parade of Pirates returns January 29th, 2-6pm!
The parade begins at Bay to Bay Boulevard and Bayshore Boulevard. It continues along Bayshore Boulevard to Brorein Street, turns east on Brorein Street, then north on Ashley Drive. The parade ends at Cass Street & Ashley Drive.
Reserved seating is available if you want to get undisturbed viewing of the parade, it must be purchased in advance. If you choose not purchase reserved seating, be sure to get there early to get a great spot along the route. It gets PACKED!
Remember these pirates have been contained for over a year, so it’s going to be a great big party!
Click here for more information
Gasparilla Pirate Fest
Once the Parade of Pirates is over, the party continues! The Pirate Fest will feature live entertainment on two stages pre and post parade in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park (Ashley and Twiggs), and MacDill Park (Ashley and Whiting).
Click here for more information
Sant' Yago Knight Parade
If you want to continue the pirate festivities, you won’t have to wait long! The Sant’ Yago Knight Parade will be invading the streets of Ybor city on February 12th with the festivities going on 4pm-11pm.
Click here for more information
Gasparilla Distance Classic
Now if you’re into doing a little cardio, you can participate in the Gasparilla Distance Classic. The event will be going on February 26th and 27th along the beautiful Bayshore Boulevard. You will be able to run in various races, whichever you choose whether it’s the 5K or half marathon. The best thing about the race is that’s family friendly and you don’t have to be an experienced runner.
Click here for more information
Gasparilla Music Festival
The Gasparilla Music Festival will be taking over Curtis Hixon Park February 25-27th. There you will be able to enjoy various tunes from bands while enjoying the great outdoors of our city.
Gasparilla Outbound Voyage
The Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla will celebrate their conquest of Tampa with a celebration you won’t want to miss that will feature live music and more, as the pirates get ready to set sail from the city launching from Sparkman Warf! The event will kick off at 2pm and last until 10pm.
Click here for more information
