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Naughty and nice
[Times files:1996]
The Krewe of the Knights of Sant’Yago throws beads during the parade. |
By MICHAEL CANNING
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 15, 2001
The 2001 Sant'Yago Knight Parade starts out kiddie-friendly in the Channel District, but when it hits Ybor City, it's definitely for grown-ups.
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The Sant'Yago Knight Parade, which is commonly misidentified as the Gasparilla night parade, distinguishes itself from its more heavily attended counterpart, the Gasparilla Invasion parade, on a few points.
It is an illuminated night procession.
It is sponsored by a krewe that dresses like Renaissance noblemen, not 18th century pirates.
And, unlike Gasparilla's single concentrated formula, the Knight Parade comes in regular and extra-strength: restrained and family-oriented in its Channel District portion, wild and loud on its Ybor City stretch. The one you get depends on your vantage point.
Since 1998, the Knight parade has extended the parade route from its traditional Ybor City boundaries to downtown's burgeoning Channel District. That's also where the Family Fiesta unfolds at 3 p.m., on either side of the Florida Aquarium at the Garrison Seaport Center's Terminal 2, and on the Tampa Port Authority lots along Ybor Channel.
Included in the fiesta will be a carnival midway with rides and games, live music, a Knighting for Kids area where children can be "knighted" by Knights of the Krewe of Sant'Yago members and make their own beads ($3), and the Monster Mural project, a 26- by- 34-foot paint-by-numbers mural that kids can help paint.
When completed, the aquatic-themed mural will hang at the aquarium's entrance. (Aquarium admission is free Friday-Sunday with an empty Red Baron pizza box or its proof of purchase label. A box or proof of purchase is required for each free admission.)
The parade begins at 7 p.m. near the new Shops at Channelside and concludes almost three miles and about two hours later at 22nd Street and Seventh Avenue in Ybor City.
With more than 126 units, this parade will match the scale of the Gasparilla Invasion parade, with many familiar krewes appearing. The procession also will include politicians, marching bands and dance squads from local schools, members of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and New York Yankees and detachments from the Tampa Police Department and Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deparment.
Two more parade hallmarks: pistols and cannons firing off blanks and the ever-popular beads and trinket necklaces thrown from the procession to the eager masses.
Donald Smith, who works at Artist Unlimited gallery on 12th Street, has experienced the parade both on Seventh Avenue and on Channelside Drive. "If you want to bring your children to it, definitely go to Channelside. The pirates wait to get a little bit crazy until they hit Seventh," said Smith, who last year watched the parade on Channelside Drive with his wife and 3-year-old son. "The pirates are very friendly over here on Channelside. They made sure that the kids got as many beads as possible. They came up to my son many a time and talked to him."
Two years ago, he braved the throng in Ybor City.
"It was nuts," Smith said. "It was shoulder-to-shoulder. You couldn't walk down the sidewalks without having to walk basically sideways like a crab. A lot of alcohol was being consumed."
"It's like a Mardi Gras rip-off," said Chris Clarke, a cook at 7th Heaven restaurant on Seventh Avenue. He ventured out onto the sidewalk during his shift at last year's parade. "It was like the closest thing you'll ever find to anarchy. They were people standing on whatever they can stand on, be it each other, or pay phones, or trash cans, rooftops and lightposts."
Kristin Passath of EventMaker, the parade's co-organizer, said the parade's split personality is part of its appeal. "I think the success of it is that it offers something for everybody."
PREVIEW
The 2001 Sant'Yago Knight Parade and Family Fiesta: Fiesta begins at 3 p.m. Saturday near Terminal 2 and Shops at Channelside on Channelside Drive, downtown Tampa. Parade begins at 7 p.m. at Channelside Drive and S Meridian Avenue, goes north on Channelside onto Nick Nuccio Parkway and enters Ybor City on Seventh Avenue. Free. Reserved grandstand parade seating is available along Channelside Drive for $15. (813) 353-8108.
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