Busch Gardens Summer Nights festival runs every year from May 28th to Sept 6th. For over 100…read morenights, guests can stay late 10AM to 10PM and safely enjoy rollercoasters, live music, live shows, new summer drinks, new summer foods, and more! The All-New "Spark! Night-time Spectacular", starting at 9:15PM, features an explosive array of fireworks combined with lasers, water elements, and pyrotechnics. Due to popular demand, "Spark!" can be enjoyed every night, including weekday nights, until August 8th. After August 8th, "Spark!" will run every Friday - Sunday night until September 6th, including Labor Day. The "Spark!" fireworks show is nowhere near as good as Disney's Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, or Hollywood Studios. There aren't as many fireworks and there is no storyline or characters, just music. 6/10 The July 4th weekend edition of the "Spark!" fireworks show had more fireworks and was better than the typical "Spark!" Fireworks show. 6.6/10 The All-New Cirque Electric Show runs Friday - Monday at the Stanleyville Theater and features an All-New acrobatic stunt show with daring airborne aerialists, stunning displays of balance and strength, and a fascinating act on wheels that cannot be missed! 10/10 The Returning Favorite, "Turn It Up!" Ice Skating Show runs Thursday - Monday at the Moroccan Palace Theater and is an award-winning show which celebrates skating with contemporary performances, aerial moments, and eclectic pop music. 9/10 As the sun goes down, electric summer vibes amp up on the Festival Field by the Iron Gwazi Rollercoaster, Cheetah Hunt Plaza by the Cheetah Hunt Rollercoaster, and Stanleyville Plaza by the Tigris Rollercoaster. There is an open-air dance party with DJs, dancing, and endless energy to build the excitement before "Spark!" ignites the sky. Specialty summer menu items are located at the Stanleyville Plaza, Cheetah Hunt Plaza, Festival Pathway, and other select locations around the park. Adults can indulge in New glow-in-the-dark summer cocktails. The Loaded Chicken on a Stick came with Crispy Chicken Breast, Shredded Cheese, Chives, Smokey Ranch Drizzle 7/10 The Loaded Corn Dog Bites came with Shredded Cheese, Crispy Jalapeños, Tomato, Corn Chips, Smokey House Sauce. 7/10 The Grilled Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich came with Grilled Onions, Peppers, Zapp's Chips and not enough cheese 6/10 The Grilled Italian Sausage Sandwich came with Grilled Onions, Peppers, Zapp's Chips 8/10 The Teriyaki Pineapple Bowls came with Grilled Shrimp or Chicken, Fresh Cut Pineapple, Fried Rice, Roasted Vegetables 8/10 The Summer Sweet Dough Delights, also known as New Orleans style Beignets, come with Chocolate or Woodford Bourbon Caramel and have been at every Busch Gardens Festival so they must be popular 7/10 The Summer Apple Sour frozen cocktail came with Tito's Vodka, Granny Smith Apple, Lemon, Lime and had a nice tart flavor. 9/10 The Blue Lagoon frozen cocktail came with Reyka Vodka, Blue Raspberry, Lemon, Lime. 8/10 The Spark The Night frozen cocktail came with Flor De Caña Rum, Red Passion Fruit, Pineapple Juice, Orange Juice, Lemon, Lime. 7/10 Busch Gardens decided to scatter the Summer Nights food options throughout the entire park instead of having everything by the Festival pathway which can be good or bad for those that like walking a lot or don't. Personally, I'd rather have all the food options all in one spot which makes it easier to decide on what to eat. After all the food options at Food & Wine Festival, the food options at Summer Nights were incredibly underwhelming. Busch Gardens Management recently added more food options to supplement the serious lack of food options available but still did not add any international or exotic options other than boring American food you could find anywhere. My favorite part of Summer Nights is the return of the shows and the ability to be in the park later! I hope Busch Gardens Management would add more colored lights to illuminate the park, more international menu items, bring back shows to the Dragon Fire Grill, bring back the Summer Nights big name concerts, and bring back the exotic Hawaiian, Fiesta, and African Village theming and foods! Summer Nights is my least favorite festival out of all the Busch Gardens festivals because of the lack of Theming and unimpressive boring food options. In 2017, Busch Gardens Summer Nights did a great job with tropical Hawaiian, Fiesta, and African Village Theming and foods but has really scaled back the Summer Nights event in recent years. With the Florida summer heat, it's usually too hot to go to Busch Gardens until 5pm and it rains a lot in the afternoons so I don't go to Busch Gardens as much during the summer.

Dollar drinks and a fun place to be. Took my girlfriend there and had the best time. Fun fun fun…read more The hot people and great place to play pool and watch tv. This place rocks. Charming tiny place which is very cool.... ;)

The concert hall is beautiful. Although they don't have the side hall second floor sitting, they do…read morehave second floor back hall sitting. The first floor sitting is slope make viewing easy for the stage. The seats are comfortable with cushion good for hours of performance. The decorations is big red make Italian style. We like acoustic that project the voice or sound of the music instrument. It is well equip with 4 side emergency exit and the back entrance.

The Falk Theatre is a nice performing arts venue. I have seen dance performances in addition to…read moreplays and musicals and musical performances here is recent years. The theatre is older and I like that it's kept kind of old school. The decor is elegant and more classically styled. There is a second floor balcony seating but not seating on the side like most older theaters. The seats are cushioned well and pretty comfortable and the slopes seating layout allows for everyone to view the stage. I suggest checking out a performance at the Falk Theatre if you see something intriguing and feel so inclined.

I grew up in a town where St. Patty's Day was a big event amongst the adults and college kids. When…read moreI moved down here it seemed a little weird to me that it wasn't as celebrated like we were used to up in the north. Over the years things seemed to pick up around here with the tradition was started in 2012 by former Mayor Bob Buckhorn. It now is an annual St. Patrick's Day festival in downtown Tampa that features the historic coloring of the Hillsborough River green, live entertainment, food trucks, and activities. The event is free, kicks off the St. Patrick's Day holiday, and includes performances, kids' activities, and the official river dyeing ceremony led by the mayor. It takes place at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. The green water goes north and south of the park as well as this year we decided to avoid the huge crowds of the park and went up to Ulele. This is a great free event to be able family and friends too and it just so happened to take place while I had my friend from Michigan in town. To my knowledge she has never ventured over to Chicago to see the original place the green river dying takes place. Though I gotta say, we do have beautiful weather to go along with our river dying vs it being very cold in Chicago in March.

This Event Took Place This Year on Saturday, March 16, 2024 from 11am-6pm. Surprisingly for me,…read morethis was a first for us. Reason is I know the parking is always a shit show, and it sure was. So many meters that were there were covered up, & not able to be used. Parking lots were $30. We finally got on the other side of town closer to the river by Armature works and thankfully that was the free side to park. The River looked pretty cool decked out for St. Patrick's Day. Everyone was walking around joyfully in Green. This was fun for the whole family with lots of festivities, music, & vendors. They even had a dog costume contest which I wanted to see yet we were too busy looking for parking. After the fest, the parade started. It was an hour long and was fun at first then too long for me. They threw lots of beads and goodies out. It was a fun way to celebrate. Afterwards, music at Armature Works. This is cool and everything, & lucky enough to get the parking that we did, but a one and done for us. All these festivities non stop around Curtis Hixon and the river with UT as a view are stunning, but parking is atrocious, & unorganized.

I LOVED this event!!!…read more My first exposure to Silent Disco was at the Gasparilla Music Festival two years ago. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay longer due to time constraints. I was beyond thrilled when I saw the event for Silent Disco posted on Facebook. Luckily, I am a member at the Tampa Museum of Art so I was able to receive $10 off of admission. For those unfamiliar with Silent Disco, each attendee receives a set of wireless headphones. There are several music stations you can choose from, designated by the color lit on your headphones. Tonight, there were three different kinds of music with three different DJs. Basically, you are dancing on your own to the music station you select. The best part is everyone is dancing in silence so to the ordinary bystander it looks peculiar. The Tampa Museum of Art was the perfect place to hold this event. The dance floor was not overcrowded at all. However, it did get hot, so many of us were able to go outside of the museum and dance. The fall weather made a rare Florida appearance tonight, which made for perfect dancing weather outside. The Pig Jig event was being held in the adjacent Curtis Hixon Park, and its attendees were giving us strange looks. Some of the festival-goers came over to ask what was going on and were taking pictures. It was funny to see some of their expressions. Silent Disco was such a blast! I had such an amazing time that when I looked at my watch, the hours had flown by and the event was almost over. I will definitely be attending Silent Disco in the future. Check it out if you want to do something different. You'll be glad you did.

Taste of South Tampa was an awesome event!! I have been wanting to go for years and finally…read moreremembered to buy tickets! I purchased VIP tickets for $75 which was totally worth it. GA tickets were $50 but the VIP ticket got you access to an air conditioned inside area with additional and higher end food tastings, bathrooms, and VIP bags. Our VIP bags included a $25 gift card to a local restaurant that I love among many other freebies. The restaurants definitely brought their best items to the tasting as they are competing for the tasters votes for best in three categories: best drinks, best food and best VIP restaurants. I can't wait until next year!

This is my 3rd year attending this event and the price has gone up, but to me it's so worth the…read moremoney now. Excellent variety of food from popular (Outback, Dirty Taco, Flames Indian) and not so popular but trying to get exposure (Chicken Salad Chick, for example) and I ate at every vendor they had and didn't have one bad taste the whole day. The trick is to get there early because vendors will give away all they have and sometimes it goes fast. Lots of drinks too, plenty of alcohol options and then there's the silly insurance and cell phone vendors sprinkled throughout. Loved the way they split up the vendors, front is hot and sunny, and back yard is shaded and more comfy with plenty of tables and chairs, they always need more trashcans, the band in front was perfect and the DJ was killing it on the back lawn area. Will go again just to see who is new and coming up with delicious tastes in my area...

I thought it would be fun to go see this fall festival and hang out with friends…read more I was hoping that it would have s lot of food trucks and food options and not mainly art. The river and the park around is a lovely area to walk around on any given day. Today was pretty warm and humid so it was kind of hard to stay out for too long, oh well it's Tampa after all. There was a nice selection of art and different vendors, much like other weekends markets in the Bay Area. For food, though I think it was lacking options. there was donuts booth, coffee truck, hotdogs, kale/ green juice and not much more to choose from. I hope that in the future they will offer more healthy foods and just more options for people to eat and want to hang around.

Our visit started as an unexpected stop on a day out and I am so glad we chose to attend for the…read morefirst time. The weather was beautiful and live music created a fun vibe as we spent hours on end at Julian B. Lane perusing the various talents of creatives local and beyond. We were excited to pick up a few pieces and make connections with great organizations for the arts. I loved watching the chalk artists at work, in awe of their talent, creating beauty with such simple tools. The onsite food trucks were fantastic and A Boy Named Sous is now on our list of trucks to follow! Our kids weren't with us on this day, but the kid's area looked amazing and it was great that there were many interactive exhibits and workshops for them. I highly recommend a visit to this festival and we plan to attend every year!

Great free event right on the river of Julian B Lane park - dog-friendly and kid-friendly. I am…read morecontinually surprised by the quality of the art and exhibits every year. There are artists from all over the country with different styles. Best event in Tampa