Ilya Goldberg's Guavaween Solution

  Owner of the Stone Soup Company on E Seventh Avenue

The solution is simple:

Guavaween worked best when it was a party.

Merchants who complain about a party in Ybor shouldn't be in Ybor.
"They can go to Westchase, or up to Wesley Chapel,
and set up shop on a nice, quiet street,"

"For years, Guavaween worked as an adult-based event, a big party, and a good time. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that," he said.
"It's one night. We wake up, we have a hangover, we clean up and move on."

"It was just so dead," said Megan Hixon, assistant general manager at

Green Iguana Bar & Grill.
"There was nothing going on," said Evan Schiller, part-owner of
Gaspar's Grotto.

Guavaween use to get 60,000 to 80,000 Partiers

for booze, beads and exposed breasts

In the 2000s, in response to complaints that had made the event too raunchy,

Guavaween organizers started making changes.

 They got rid of motorized floats for the parade, then ditched the parade altogether.....more

Is there a right wing conspiracy in the Ybor City Chamber?  

 I was at Fantasma Fest last year and it was lame. Night time is for adults.