Boats crowd Hillborough Bay and celebrate Gaspiralla on the water each year. Photo courtesy of Christopher Hollis, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
As the 2026 Gasparilla season approaches and holiday spirits remain high, some University of Tampa (UTampa) students are preparing differently compared to previous years due to cold weather.
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By Gloria Falach
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa’s annual holiday, Gasparilla, rolled into town this year on Jan. 31. For many students, participating in Gasparilla has become a yearly tradition. Some students at the University of Tampa like to join in the fun of dressing like a pirate, watching the parade that starts on Bayshore and ends in downtown Tampa, and collecting beads.
The Gasparilla forecast this year showed a high of 57 degrees with a low of 31 degrees at night.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, due to this year’s cold weather, there was a chance of “Gulf effect” snow in some areas of Tampa Bay on Saturday night and Sunday morning. This caused many students to adjust their Gasparilla plans this past weekend.
Many students participate in Gasparilla by dressing up in theme and walking around the city of Tampa. Due to weather concerns, many female students have had to put the miniskirts away and make other wardrobe arrangements to stay warm.
Lanie Hall, a junior at UTampa, has perfected her preparation plans for Gasparilla since she was a freshman. She makes sure she is aware of which roads are closed and determines which routes will be the fastest on foot the night before.
Hall planned on wearing a long skirt with lots of upper body layers to stay warm, but also be able to take it off if she gets too crowded. In locations like Bayshore Boulevard, where a large number of people are squished together watching the parade, students can get hot easily.
“I want my layers to be thin enough that it’s easy to take them off if I get too hot,” Hall said.
Nathalie Yencle-Torres, a sophomore, was born and raised in Tampa and had to make additions to her outfit to stay warm while trying to stay in the pirate theme.
“I’m wearing my original outfit, and then I’m adding thermal leggings and a snow jacket,” Yencle-Torres said.
Since Yencle-Torres is not used to colder weather, she also planned on stopping by DICKS Sporting Goods to purchase hand warmers. She said she considered changing her outfit a dozen times to try to stay warm.
The struggle to find new and warmer outfits for Gaspiralla has become popular on social media due to the cold front in Florida.
“I’ve seen a lot of people on TikTok planning to wear long skirts or long sleeve dresses with a lot of layers, which is smart because I think everyone this year is going for warmth rather than the original Pirate outfits,” said Yencle-Torres.
Many UTampa students are from the North and are used to colder weather. Rebecca Tow, a junior, is from Maryland and has only planned to add a jacket to her pirate outfit.
“I think I am just going to try to brave the elements,” said Tow. “I have been in colder weather in this type of outfit before.”
Regardless of whether or not UTampa students are used to the cold, many students had to adapt and prepare themselves differently for the 2026 Gasparilla invasion compared to previous years.