Ybor City Chamber to Focus More on Daytime Guavaween

 Chamber Looks at Bringing Back Parade

  (Tampa, Florida) The Ybor City Chamber of Commerce announced today that they will focus on making Guavaween more of a daytime event that will be fun for all ages. Guavaween, Tampa's Halloween Festival now in its 27th year, has been changing for the last few years.   This year, is no different. Although Guavaween, held on the last Saturday of October before Halloween, is still eight months away, leaders at the Chamber have been working to bring this event more in-line with other successful Ybor City promotions and special events.

Marc Hamburg Chair of the Guavaween 2013 Committee says, "Guavaween can be better positioned as a daytime street event that ends in a public parade." Hamburg cites the Chamber's recent Fiesta Day as a very successful model. Hamburg and Co-chair Angela Rodante are working on a model that combines a "strong street experience" with the "excitement of a night-parade." This approach would include closing Seventh Avenue Saturday afternoon and providing a variety of family-related activities including a limited number of street vendors and musical acts.

The event would, of course, include the traditional Costume Contest and could even end with a late-night VIP celebration at one of Ybor's famous social clubs. The Chamber will be surveying its members to help with planning and will be talking with Tampa's Inter Krewe Council about how to make the motorized-parade more attractive to both Krewe's and spectators.

"The exact design and which components are included will depend on fund-raising," stated Tom Keating, Chamber President & CEO. "We want to have an event that allows people of all ages, from residents to visitors to enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of Ybor City all day long."

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