Gasparilla kids’s parade preview
Aaron Mesmer experiences.
TAMPA, Fla. – Gasparilla season is able to kick off this weekend, with the Gasparilla Kids’s Parade, which organizers mentioned on Friday will probably be larger and higher than ever.
What can attendees count on?
What we all know:
Occasions start at midday on Saturday, with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Security Rodeo, hosted by the Tampa Police Division alongside Bayshore Boulevard, between Rome Avenue and Dakota Avenue. It will be adopted by the Gasparilla Air Invasion and Preschooler’s Stroll at 2 p.m.
The parade, which organizers mentioned is the most important kids’s parade within the nation, is scheduled from 4-6:15 p.m. and will probably be adopted by a nighttime air invasion and fireworks present.
Kids’s Gasparilla 2025: Right here’s what to know
“It is the most important kids’s parade within the nation with over 11,000 members. We’ll have over 100,000 individuals on the market on Bayshore. Not many locations within the nation can say that,” mentioned Dillon Stefany, Vice President of EventFest. “It is a terrific occasion every year, however we have a look at it yearly and say, how can we make it larger? How can we make it higher, enhance on the little issues, add totally different actions to maintain everyone engaged all through the day?”
Bayshore Boulevard will probably be closed starting at 8 p.m. on Friday and will not reopen till after the parade. Highway closures will lengthen far past the parade route which, as is the case lately, is alongside Bayshore, between Bay to Bay Boulevard and Edison Avenue.
What you are able to do:
Stefany mentioned parade-goers are urged to park in public garages and parking heaps. A free trolley will probably be accessible all through the day and can choose up individuals and drop them off close to the intersection of Bayshore and Platt Avenue.
Tampa police, in the meantime, understand some individuals might have security issues following the New Yr’s terrorist assault in New Orleans. Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw mentioned this yr’s security plan is extra intensive than in earlier years.
“I feel among the huge variations that you’re going to see is we at all times have a strong barrier plan, however we’re including on prime of that and even making it extra sturdy. And then you definitely’ll see extra drones on the market, police drones,” Bercaw mentioned. “We’d like everyone’s eyes and ears, irrespective of what number of cops are on the market. In the event you see one thing, say one thing.”
Organizers are reminding parade-goers the kids’s parade is alcohol-free. Golf carts and different motorized transportation are usually not allowed alongside the parade route.
WATCH FOX 13 NEWS:
STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:
