PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Away from the popular sun coast beaches of Pinellas County, the small town of Tarpon Springs is ready to yell out at the Tampa Bay area, “We are still here.”

It’s Epiphany time in Tarpon Springs.

What You Need To Know

The Boat Blessing happens on Thursday afternoon, followed by the headlining cross dive in the cold waters of Spring Bayou on Friday.

Epiphany this year could bring in more people than usual, maybe even more than before the pandemic.

At least that’s the hope for Demetrios Salivaras, owner of Demetrios’s on the Water, a Tarpon Springs restaurant.

“People are really excited about this year,” Salivaras said. “It seems like we are falling to a more norm than we haven't seen, so yeah, it's going to be a big year for us."

Salivaras and his family moved to Tarpon Springs in 1982, a place they call home. A place they watched take a hard hit during the COVID-19 lockdown.

It’s a town that business owners say is looking up this weekend, hoping and praying this year’s cross retrieval brings blessings for more than just the teenage boy that gets to it first.

“For the economy of Tarpon Springs, it's great,” Salivaras said. “It brings a lot of new people. Some people that have never been here before or others that have. So it's a big impact."

This is the 117th Annual Epiphany Celebration in Tarpon Springs and the tradition dates back to 1906.