New Port Richey Events & Community
Chasco Fiesta brings 350-plus classic cars, marching bands, and thousands of spectators to a small Pasco County river town every March. Third-largest street parade in the state of Florida.
From New Port Richey.
People who've never been here don't believe that until they see it.
Signature Events
Chasco Fiesta. March. A week-long takeover. The parade alone draws spectators who line Main Street four deep. Then the car show fills the lots with 350 classic cars and trucks, hoods up, owners leaning on fenders telling you what year they rebuilt the transmission. Live music on multiple stages. A boat parade on the Cotee. Food vendors crowding every corner. Downtown businesses run specials all week. Restaurants stay full from opening ceremony to last float. This is the event that puts New Port Richey on the map for people who've never thought about Pasco County.
NPR Fourth Friday Block Party. Fourth Friday of every month. Main Street closes to cars. Vendors set up booths. Local bands play outdoor stages. Restaurants push their seating onto the sidewalks. Free, no tickets, no pretense. If Chasco is the headline act, Fourth Friday is the heartbeat. The thing that keeps the town's pulse steady between the big moments.
Cotee River Seafood & Blues Festival. April. Gulf seafood from local vendors, blues on the Sims Park stage. Shrimp eaten with your hands, a twelve-bar shuffle drifting across the amphitheater, the river sliding past behind the band. It's not trying to be anything other than what it is.
Through the Year
Spring starts strong. Chasco in March, Seafood and Blues in April. Low humidity, warm days, cool evenings. If you're planning one trip, this is when.
Summer belongs to the regulars. The festival crowds thin out. The Cotee River picks up kayakers and paddleboarders who have the water mostly to themselves. Fourth Friday still runs, but the crowd skews local, which changes the energy. Less browsing, more neighbors catching up in the middle of a closed street. The Richey Suncoast keeps its lights on with summer productions. If you want New Port Richey without competing for a table, this is the window.
Fall is when the theatre gets ambitious. The Richey Suncoast opens its new season with bigger productions, and the building itself, 1925 plaster walls and a century of acoustics, makes everything sound better than it has a right to. Ghost tours start threading through the Historic District near Halloween, drawing on stories from the 1920s glamour era. Silent film stars and speakeasy rumors. The architecture sells it. Seasonal markets set up along Main Street, and the snowbird advance guard starts trickling in, testing the restaurants before committing to the whole winter.
Winter brings the full snowbird migration and holiday programming. Sims Park hosts seasonal celebrations. The theatre runs holiday shows. Restaurants welcome back the regulars who vanish every April and reappear like clockwork.
Recurring Events
- Fourth Friday Block Party. Monthly, all year. Streets close, music plays, the town shows up
- Richey Suncoast Theatre productions. Plays, musicals, revivals in a building that's been open since 1925. Local actors performing for local audiences in a room with a hundred years of echo
- Sims Park concerts. Live music at the riverfront amphitheater. The Cotee running behind the stage turns even a modest lineup into a setting worth the drive
- Classic movie screenings. Vintage films on the big screen at the Richey Suncoast. A 1940s picture in a 1925 theatre. No multiplex can touch that
- Ghost tours. Walks through the Historic District, drawing on the town's 1920s glamour-era stories. Part history, part performance, part excuse to walk around downtown after dark with a drink
Where Things Happen
Most events land at Sims Park (outdoor festivals, concerts), Main Street (Fourth Friday block parties), or the Richey Suncoast Theatre (plays, comedy, films). The Hacienda Hotel hosts private events inside its 1927 walls. Bigger festivals like Chasco spill onto Grand Boulevard and Nebraska Avenue.