TAMPA — The First Friday block party has long been a fixture of St. Petersburg’s thriving downtown social scene.
Now Tampa is poised to launch its own monthly social happening, focused mainly on the museums and theaters that run the length of the city’s Riverwalk.
Fourth Friday starts Friday in downtown Tampa with nine cultural venues planning afternoon and evening events and more than 15 bars and restaurants offering deals ranging from discounts to extended happy hours. Free water taxi rides will be available to enable revelers to hop from venue to venue.
Tampa is pitching its event as a little more sophisticated than St. Petersburg’s monthly drinkfest. It will have a focus on Tampa’s growing cultural and arts scene, and organizers hope it will draw more people downtown and through museum and theater doors.
“The arts and culture scene in Tampa is growing; it has become very rich,” said Donna Chen, director of marketing and communications for the Tampa Downtown Partnership. “What better way to tell that story than to have a monthly event like this that puts the spotlight on these institutions.”