City People
Your fun is her work
During Guavaween, organizer Teri Cox Hickey is hard at work, while everyone else is showing off their costumes.
By BABITA PERSAUD, Times Staff Writer
Published October 24, 2003
YBOR CITY - Few want the task: Organize Guavaween.
For 10 years, it has been the job of Teri Cox Hickey, owner of CC Event Productions, the promoter for Ybor City's annual Halloween bash.
She is responsible for the chain-link fence, the toilets, the entertainment stages, the crowd of 100,000 and the cleanup afterward.
Why would she want it?
"I'm a carnie," she says, proudly.
An Ohio native, Hickey, 45, was raised in the fair business.
She sold hot dogs and soft pretzels as a teenager, ran around with Gorilla Girl and knew members of the Stephens family, a band of gypsies that travel the East Coast. Some of her friends' mothers read palms and told fortunes.
During summers, she traveled with her parents, Charles and Patricia Cox, who started a fair concession stand business with one ice cream truck. Her dad rode through neighborhoods, ball parks, then fairs. Concessions By Cox was born.
At times, the young Hickey loved the business, especially when she returned to school with stories of gypsies.
Other times, she hated it. While she sweated behind the sausage grill, her non-carnie friends spent the summer by the pool.
Once, in her 20s, she told her dad she wanted out. She was tired of working weekends and long hours.
"I wanted a 9-to-5 job," she said.
Hickey packed her bags for New York City and went to work for a novelty company importing stuffed animals. It didn't last long.
She returned to her home state to run the headquarters of Concessions by Cox, which had grown to 48 trailers serving 300 festivals, ribfests and air shows in eight states.
One day, in July 1993, her father called.
We need you in Tampa in two weeks, he said. Guavaween was three months away.
"You are the only one I know who can do it," he said.
* * *
Guavaween is the main fundraiser for the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce. For years, it was organized by local artists, the Playmakers, then by volunteers under the chamber's direction.
Over time, the event became too difficult to manage. The chamber needed a professional. Leaders called Concessions by Cox, which ran a fleet of stands at the Florida State Fairgrounds.
Hickey only took the job if the chamber agreed to put a fence around the event and charge admission.
The first two years, Guavaween cost $5.
This year, it's $12, up from $10 last year. (Hickey added an entertainment stage and Freak Alley with a headless woman and fire eater.)
The Ybor chamber makes $150,000 from Guavaween, getting 25 percent of the gate charge and a commission from sponsorship and vendors.
Hickey's company walks away with $100,000 to $120,000.
CC Event Productions has a budget of $600,000. It pays $80,000 for security, $80,000 for barricades and cleanup, and $140,000 for entertainment.
Hickey, who lives in Riverview, used to orchestrate Guavaween from temporary offices. In August, she moved into permanent digs at 1710 Avenida Republica de Cuba. She has six employees.
Guavaween isn't her only baby.
She organizes Ybor's Bike Week in September, which started two years ago.
She also does Ybor's Big, Bang, Boom Fourth of July bash and three Main Street Arts and Crafts festivals a year.
Next year, she's adding Fiesta Day, held in February to celebrate Ybor's Latin heritage.
"I think events are crucial to Ybor City," said Hickey.
Hickey wants to hold a preservation trade show that would incorporate the area's many historic clubs. And she wants to hold a food festival.
Radio personality Jack Harris planted the idea in her head. He wanted to do a Taste of Ybor.
She wasn't excited.
"Tastes are overdone," she told him.
But what about a taste with a twist? Use Tampa's streetcar. Let people hop from the Channel District to Ybor restaurants. Call it: Taste of the Trolley.
He loved it.
The first one will be in January 2005.
"She understands the business of Ybor," said Annette DeLisle, president of Ybor City's Chamber of Commerce. "She knows the best route for the delivery trucks. She arranges all those little things that make events run smoother. It's been a real relief."
* * *
Hickey, who is married with two daughters ages 6 and 25, is a stickler about organization.
She's also a micromanager. Not out of choice - but necessity. Once CC Event planned a ribfest in Kissimmee, and no one showed up. Apparently, there was a glitch in advertising, she said.
"They say don't micromanage, but you have to keep your nose in what people are doing," she said.
CC Event is very much still a family affair. Her husband, JJ Hickey, helps with logistics during Guavaween. Her daughter, Morgan, who studied art at the University of Florida, does graphic design.
On Guavaween, which is Saturday, she works from 5 a.m. the day of the event to 5 p.m. the next day. When she goes home, "I go to bed with a huge plate of food."
Planning a big event is "like creating a village," she said.
You go into an area and in 24 hours, you have tents, vendors, stages and 100,000 people.
Sunday, it's all gone.
Critics say Guavaween is not creative anymore; it's too commercial.
Hickey's response: "The human race is not as creative as it used to be."
Critics also say it's too wild.
"I worry about it becoming too tame," she said.
Ten years ago, she added Family FunFest for kids. And new this year: Guava Eve Masquerade Ball, an upscale party tonight in the old Cherokee Club on Ninth Avenue. It features a midnight chocolate buffet, flowing drapes and candelabras.
"My concern is not to go too far that it is considered boring," she said. "I never want it to be boring."
- Babita Persaud can be reached at 226-3322 or persaud@sptimes.com
Teri Cox Hickey
JOB: Owner of CC Event Productions, which organizes Guavaween and other events in Ybor City.
HER ADVICE: "Be ready for surprises."
HER DAD'S ADVICE: "Worry what you can control kid; you can't control the sky."
FAVORITE COSTUME AS A KID: Witch, made by her mother. The pointy hat actually stood up.
FOR FUN: "Lay by a pool or beach doing absolutely nothing."
HER OWN PARTIES: Holds summer and Christmas parties. Last year's holiday bash included 200 guests and four trees.
GOALS: Turn Guavaween into a two-day event.
FAVORITE YBOR HAUNT: Big City Tavern. "It reminds me of New York."
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