2012 Pin Chasers Knight Parade and Saint Patricks's Schedule Ybor City, Florida

Ahoy, me Hearties of Tampa Bay! If you missed the Gasparilla parades on Bayshore, you still have 2 more parades to catch this season!

February 18, 2012

PIN CHASERS KNIGHT PARADE

Start time 6:30 PM

Mark your calendar for the city’s biggest night parade! You’ll keep coming back once you are bedazzled with hundreds of illuminated floats loaded with music and pirates as they fill the streets for the Pin Chasers Night Parade. The official name of the event for 2012 is the Krewe of the Knights of Sant’ Yago presents Pin Chasers Knight Parade brought to you by MOR and estrellaTV. Daytime television personality Jerry Springer will also be appearing in the parade on the MOR float, as honorary grand marshal.

The Krewe of the Knights of Sant' Yago, a 250-member group whose ancestry dates back to the ninth-century Spanish Brotherhood of the Royal Order of St. James. The parade theme is centered on Tampa’s strong Latin heritage. Don’t be surprised if you are thrown packaged yellow rice instead of beads!

Location:

The parade route begins at The Florida Aquarium where there are fun family activities such as amusement rides and live music and marches to Ybor City, down 7^th Avenue.

Insider Tip: Wear comfortable shoes, feather boas, last year’s beads; Boas, blinkies.

March 17, 2012 – Start time 8:00 PM

ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE

Seventh Avenue in Ybor City comes alive once again, with over 117 floats covered with lights and loaded with leprechauns for Tampa’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The annual parade in Ybor City is presented by the Rough Riders, a Krewe formed for the purpose of creating and perpetuating a living memorial to the unique accomplishment of President Theodore Roosevelt and the members of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment known as the "Rough Riders". Don’t miss their spectacular new illuminated float. One of the best parades, and a great ending to the parade season, will make you wish there were more as crowds will fill the streets dressed in green clovers. Beads, beads, and more beads will hang from the necks of thousands of children and adults.

Insider tip: Wear comfortable shoes, feather boas, last year’s beads; anything that blinks and is green.

Noteworthy: In addition to parade activities, throughout the year Rough Riders bring donated Teddy Bears to local hospitals to bring a smile to the faces of sick children & seniors.