Every year, an estimated 300,000 participants come to Tampa for Gasparilla Pirate Festival, a mock attack by a band of pirates called Ye Mystic Krewe. The pirates’ plot is simple: storm the shores, take the key to the city and parade down Bayshore Boulevard.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor handed over the key to the city to Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla during the 2025 Gasparilla Pirate invasion. The invasion is a Tampa tradition stretching back to the early 1900s, when the first Gasparilla Krewe in Tampa Bay decided to invade the city on horseback to create an event to promote the city.