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Weekend spotlight: A horror show, and Motley Crue
The Catalyst’s every-Thursday guide to Tampa Bay entertainment and the arts.
As if this oppressive August heat wasn’t horrible enough, this weekend delivers a three-day celebration of the horror movie genre. It’s the Sunshine City Scare, replete with cosplay, vendors, panels, workshops, contests and guest appearances Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront.
There have been elaborate costumes at this venue before. In the early 1980s, when it was known as the Bayfront Concourse Hotel, the Suncoast Playboy Club was located on the ground floor.
Back to the point:
Sunshine City Scare, which launched in 2023, is one of several genre-related events organized by Dewey Caruthers, and his St. Pete Comic Con organization.
“There’s a lot of demand for it here,” Caruthers told us in ’22, when he launched his first comic con event. “Comic con fans and cosplayers are a very loyal audience. And they want more than to just go to one con a year.”
The next St. Pete Comic Con is planned for April, 2027 at the St. Petersburg Coliseum.
In the meantime, this weekend’s Sunshine City Scare is being billed as “Florida’s Halloween Prequel,” with decorations, apparel, accessories, collectibles and artwork from “specialty horror vendors.”
Makeup and special effects tips will come courtesy of YouTube’s “Evil Ted” (leading a panel on creating blood effects) and TikTok fave “The Star Cos,” a 21-year-old Universal Epic Universe makeup artist.
Get all the details you need at this link.
Motley Crue 2026, from left: Tommy Lee, John 5, Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx. Publicity photo.
Concert calendar
The improbably reunited Motley Crue is onstage Saturday at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre, although guitarist Mick Mars has been replaced with ex-Rob Zombie bandmember John 5 (aka John Lowery). Tesla and Extreme are also on the bill; find tickets at this link.
Lead guitarist Tonino Baliardo and singer Nicholas Reyes remain front and center in the renowned Spanish/French band Gipsy Kings, returning to the Mahaffey Theater Sunday. Ther world music group plays an energized mix of traditional flamenco styles, with injections of Western pop and Latin rhythms. The show starts at 7; find tickets here.
On theater stages
In St. Petersburg, ThinkTank Theatre is guest-performing on the freeFall stage Friday through Aug. 23. It’s the 12-time Tony nominated The Spongebob Musical, and you can find all showtimes and tickets at this link.
ThinkTank Producing Artistic Director Georgia Mallory Guy is Friday’s guest on our Arts Alive! podcast.
In Tampa, Powerstories Theatre is guest-performing at Stageworks Friday through Sunday. Conscience, presented as a staged reading, is the story of Maine senator Margaret Chase Smith, who openly denounced villain senator Joe McCarthy in 1950.
Take a deep dive into this show by reading our story from earlier this week.
Coming soon
Aug. 18 Avenged Sevenfold, Good Charlotte at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
Aug. 19 Jack Johnson at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
Aug. 19 Squeeze, Adam Ant, Haircut One Hundred at the BayCare Sound
Aug. 19-Sept. 6. Jobsite Theater Penelope
Aug. 20 Starship, John Waite at Ruth Eckerd Hall
Aug. 21 Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
Aug. 21 Classic Albums Live “Breakfast in America” at the Capitol Theatre
Aug. 22 Jonathan Cain at Central Park Performing Arts Center
Aug. 22 Dokken, Lynch Mob at Ferg’s Pavilion
Aug. 22-24 Kasondra Rose Not-So-Starving Artist, Straz Center Shimberg Playhouse
Aug. 23 Buddy Guy at Ruth Eckerd Hall
Aug. 23 K-Pop Warriors at the St. Petersburg Coliseum
Aug. 24 Goo Dolls at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
Aug. 26 Buckcherry at Jannus Live
Aug. 27 Devo at the BayCare Sound
Aug. 29 Dirty Heads, 311 at Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre
Sept. 1 Blues Traveler, Gin Blossoms at the BayCare Sound
Sept. 3 Psychedelic Furs, Living Colour at Jannus Live
Sept. 4 Yellowcard at the BayCare Sound
Sept. 10 Luke Bryan at Mid-Florida Credit Union Ampitheatre
Sept. 12 & 13 Bruno Mars at Raymond James Stadium
Sept. 17-Oct. 4 As We Like it at LAB Theater Project
Sept. 19 What a Glorious Feeling opens at freeFall Theatre
Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section.
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