Whataboutmomma won’t be the only band watching the past take a back seat this weekend at the Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF).
Organizers at GMF—a nonprofit organization run by volunteers along with less than a handful of paid staff—also have a huge task ahead of them as they prepare to make a home in a new location.
The festival, which began with a prayer and with the support of core members of the “Ring of Fire”, debuted at the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and Kiley Garden in 2012. It was bold in its audacity to compete with others in the festival space, but clearly – a look in its simple mission to celebrate everything fans loved about Tampa.
The profile of the headliners has only grown over the years from Ra Ra Riot on the inaugural release to bands like Dr. Dog, The Meter Men, Flaming Lips, Trombone Shorty, Modest Mouse, Gogol Bordello, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Brandi Carlyle, Stephen Marley, The Avett Brothers, Gary Clark Jr., Cage the Elephant, Father John Misty and countless others.
(See photos of highlights from Gasparilla’s 12th annual run at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park at the bottom of this post.)
The festival has even expanded to three days in 2021.
But as previously reported, the city of Tampa cited “water intrusion issues” in a 2021 assessment by engineering firm Walter P Moore when it did not issue permits for GMF to use Kiley. Not including the retrofit for a new drainage system, the firm estimated the likely cost of the foundation repair recommendations for Kiley at $9-11 million.
Barring some miracle, it doesn’t look like GMF will be returning to this part of downtown anytime soon. Even if a philanthropist foots the bill for Keeley’s renovation, there is a movement to turn it back into a place to sit, rather than a green space used for a music festival.
Last spring, without Kylie in their quiver, GMF threw a two-day party in a sprawling festival footprint.
The lineup of more than 40 bands was spread across the Curtis Hixon stages, but also at the Straz Center, Sparkman Wharf and the Tampa Convention Center. The adaptation marked the first time the festival left park grounds since 2016, when it used MacDill Park, also just a short walk from Kiley.
But headliners from the first day of 2023, including Run the Jewels and Chromeo, were gone.
Photo by NIcholas DeCastro c/o Gasparilla Music Festival
Cope performs on stage at the 2023 Gasparilla Music Festival on the Riverwalk in front of the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
The 2024 edition offers a chance for GMF to return to one address. And while you could almost use a slingshot to hit Julian B. Lane of GMF’s longtime home at Curtis Hixon, so much would look different.
The minarets of the University of Tampa are not the backdrop for the main scene; instead, visitors to the 2024 GMF festival will get the Straz Center and the downtown Tampa skyline.
GMF CEO David Cox also told CL that Julian B. Lane’s main stage can hold closer to 10,000 people compared to the 8,000 or so that can fit into The Curt. This creates more space for people and also means expanded ticket capacity.
“There’s a pretty significant size difference. But we think it’s great; in the big picture, it gives us a lot more room for more activations and more bands and just a lot more fun stuff,” Cox added. “We were really limited by the space we had at Curtis Hixon.”
The new GMF map also takes advantage of downtown Tampa’s largest park, which has already hosted major events such as the NFL Experience ahead of Super Bowl LV in 2021, the Tampa Pig Jig, the Margarita Festival and the beloved Gasparilla Arts Festival. However, this will be the first major music festival to activate the 25-acre space, which opened its doors six years ago after a major renovation.
Julian B. Lane is home to four stages for GMF 2024, including a main stage in the southeast corner of the park closest to the river. There are also stages near the park’s state-of-the-art boathouse, a “Fortune” stage on the football field, and a stage near the park’s southwest entrance near N Boulevard.
The festival’s popular silent disco, which runs on Friday and Saturday, is also back on the schedule along with Kids Fest on Sunday, complete with family-friendly activities such as face painting, free tye dye shirt making, a petting zoo with tools, Tampa Bay Rays’ DJ Kitty and more.
As usual, we will be seeing GMF babies on the grounds each day before the caretakers come to collect them so parents can have fun at night.
Photo by Dylan Wallace c/o Gasparilla Music Festival
A generation of kids has already grown up at the Gasparilla Music Festival.
GMF’s alfresco dining hall—Calle Cocina, which traditionally features the best of Tampa’s culinary palette—is set to take over the park’s southern strip as well.
CL will miss the simple joy of eating a Clam Master Jay shrimp roll this year, but some highlights of GMF’s 2024 culinary lineup include Lucky Tigré Filipino Restaurant, longtime Seminole Heights favorite Nebraska Mini-Mart, Big Rays Fish Camp and Loli’s Mexican Cravings.
It’s also wild to think that downtown Tampa dive bar The Hub—the venue for GMF’s unofficial afterparty, complete with cameos from bands like Spoon and even Father John Misty—is a little further away in 2024. (Hooch and Hive, just a block away from Julian B. Lane, is a very good Plan B.)
Even the music lineup has something different this year.
The 2024 line-up, as in the past, definitely includes GMF must-haves like old-school hip-hop with Digable Planets and Goodie Mob. There’s big-name Americana with Lake Street Dive, plus roots with Yonder Mountain String Band and blues with Roosevelt Collier and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. Great tribute acts (Steeln’ Peaches) and a strong local presence up and down many stages (Pet Lizard, Pusha Preme, Alien House, Shelby Sol and more) are also a return to GMF’s core value. Local hip-hop also shines thanks to GMF’s long-term booking for Aych (who plays on Friday).
Traditionally, a gospel choir kicks things off on Saturday morning – this set is always an emotional highlight. Rock bands like Surf Mesa are also there, but also more reggae-oriented acts like Trevor Hall.
And more than ever, the heaviest in the GMF headliner line-up features clean-cut indie-pop adored by late millennials and Gen Z, including bands like Young The Giant, Coin and Jesuit Alum Aidan Bisset. Friday night’s headlining acts also have a strong dance vibe thanks to a ‘playground’ DJ set by Louis the Child, plus livetronica by Big Gigantic.
The lineup also doesn’t have many obvious superstars in the making, which is something of a departure for a festival that hosts Grammy nominee Margot Price (a two-time GMF alumna). Heck, Boygenius’ Phoebe Bridgers, who won more Grammys than anyone, including Taylor Swift this month, was played in front of about 100 people in 2017.
“The park has been a sacred place and a place for Tampa music for decades, and it fits with what we’re doing,” Cox said of his nonprofit festival, which has spent the past 13 years putting refurbished instruments in the hands of local schoolchildren.
And while it’s sad to leave Curtis Hixon’s legacy behind—the long-demolished Curtis Hixon Hall once hosted Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, The Who, Bob Marley, U2 and more—the move opens many doors. who just wouldn’t budge in the old GMF home.
Photo by Javi Ortiz/Zitrovision c/o Gasparilla Music Festival
The Gasparilla Music Festival, pictured here in 2022, has been held at Curtis Hixon Park and Kiley Garden in Tampa, Florida since the festival’s inception in 2012. GMF’s executive director said the site’s history makes it a “sacred place.” in a sense.
And if time is any indication, GMF knows how to build from scratch and survive. This is the festival that outlasted so many big money festivals, including Innings, Big Guava and Langerado down south, after all.
By all accounts, GMF is ready to take on the next chapter.
Cox said he’s excited to see how the crowds embrace the music, especially the locals, and is proud of the expansion of free tickets for music educators.
“It’s a big part of what we do, and a lot of these kids who are playing came up under these teachers 10 years ago when they were in middle or elementary school,” he added.
“Our main focus is to showcase the best of Tampa,” he added. “So yeah, it’s a little bit bittersweet. But for what Curtis Hickson is and what GMF has become, it’s gotten to the point where we have to grow out of it and bring a new story to a new place.”
Look below to go through the development of GMF history from 2012 to 2023.
