Is Fantasy Fest still on in Key West? Yes, but it’ll be more of a ‘kinky’ private affair
This year’s Fantasy Fest in Key West won’t come with parades, a street fair or other large-crowd traditions like the Goombay festival and the Zombie Bike Ride.
Those marquee events were canceled because of the ongoing pandemic, which led to last year’s Fantasy Fest to be scratched entirely.
This year, there won’t even be a king and queen competition because the nonprofit behind it concluded it couldn’t enforce masking or ensure people attending all of the fundraising events were vaccinated.
Now, festival organizers, workers and business owners are counting on more than 40 private parties. They include:
▪ The Kinky Carnival at the First Flight restaurant, where “kinky” costumes are required for entry.
▪ Wharfstock at the Schooner Wharf Bar.
▪ The Red Party, where everything is decked out in that color,
▪ A homemade bikini contest at the Smokin’ Tuna Saloon.
Some of the Fantasy Fest parties have been going on for years. The Toga Party at Sloppy Joe’s Bar on Duval Street is as old as the event itself, which began 42 years ago, said festival director Nadene Grossman Orr.
“Now these individual bars and parties that support the festival every year get to be the showcase,” Grossman Orr said.
Fantasy Fest is set for Oct. 22-31.
She and her team announced in August they had canceled the signature parade, the marquee event of the 10-day party that packs Duval Street on the final night. They also scrapped the street fair set for Oct. 29 and 30.
They later also called off the Masquerade March, known as the locals parade, which had been on the schedule for Friday, Oct. 29. And there are no scheduled street closings to carve out the “Fantasy Zone” along Duval, where body paint counts as a shirt but nudity is still outlawed.
Some hotel bookings were lost but those with a stake in the Fantasy Fest economy say they’re back on track.
“Things fluctuated a little when we made the initial announcements,” Grossman Orr said. “There’s still a consistent booking pace and hotels expect to be very well booked for Fantasy Fest.”
Despite COVID, no slow season this year
Die-hard Fantasy Fest revelers, especially the hardly dressed, traditionally fill Duval Street to show off what they’re wearing, and not. Instead, organizers are directing tourists to the parties.
“We’re very straight-forward with everyone,” Grossman Orr said. “We let them know what’s been canceled.
“Fantasy Fest is going to look different this year.”
A pink party, where attendees are urged to wear their “sexiest” pink costume or just body paint, will raise money for the American Cancer Society. Irish Kevin’s bar will once again host a party paying homage to the 1980s. And a new event celebrating the “classic era” of MTV is at the newly opened RockHouse Live venue in the 100 block of Duval.
Even with event shutdowns, through the year tourists have flooded Key West in 2021 as international destinations remain closed and Florida has made it known it’s open for business. More than a million people have gone through the small city’s airport this year — setting a new annual record before the end of the year.
The average monthly hotel occupancy rate for the year sits at 86 percent, according to the travel research company STR.
From March through June, the rate was in the low 90s, peaking in March at 94.6 percent. It dipped in July to 86 percent and hit a yearly low of nearly 69 percent in August.
“We’re supposed to be in slow season right now and we just are not,” said Mayor Teri Johnston, who acknowledged that over the past year, spikes in COVID-19 cases have followed big events in the Keys.
“We are hosting Fantasy Fest and I have every expectation we’ll see a spike two weeks after that,” Johnston said. “At some point we have to get back to some form of normalcy. We need to do it exhibiting good common sense.”
History of Fantasy Fest
Fantasy Fest dates back to 1979 when a group of Key West business owners came up with a way to draw tourists and their cash to the island during what was the slowest of seasons during the fall. What started as a small parade morphed into a 10-day festival attracting 75,000 people to the Southernmost City, organizers estimate.
But it’s not all about body paint. Fantasy Fest attracts creative brilliance along with the predictable raunch. For nearly every sexy outfit, there’s a humorous one, too.
But for many, it’s still a celebration of sexuality — or at least a time to at least let go of inhibitions. You see all types of body shapes and all ages taking part over the week-long festival.
“Key West tells the world anything goes and then the world calls its bluff,” said Mark Hedden, a photographer who has called the island home for nearly 30 years.
Hedden started documenting Fantasy Fest in 2014, venturing into lower Duval Street near Greene Street, which he calls “the belly of the beast.” He’s been to at least 25 celebrations.
“For some people this is the greatest week of their life and they come back year after year,” he said. “For some people I think it’s part of their identity to come down and do this. Stuff they wouldn’t be able to do at home.”
On Oct. 8, the Key West Art and Historical Society will present his new exhibit, “A Mixed Up, Muddled Up, Shook Up World,” a selection of 35 photographs he’s made at Fantasy Fest. The exhibit will be in the Bumpus Gallery at the Custom House Museum, 281 Front St., and runs until Nov. 7.
Fantasy Fest is a part of Key West’s history, said Cori Convertito, curator at the art and historical society, where past exhibits have chronicled the event’s kings and queens and parades.
“It’s part of the island’s fabric, whether people like it or not,” Convertito said. “It brings a lot of money to town. It should be celebrated in different forms.”
Hedden says he merely took stock of what he saw in the streets, going in without judgment.
Yes, there is nudity involved.
“This is total body positivity,” Hedden said. “No one down there is a shrinking violet.”
Last year’s cancellation of Fantasy Fest didn’t stop people from coming down to Key West ready to show off and party. But Hedden said when he went out with his camera, it didn’t feel or look like the usual celebrations.
“There’s an energy in the air when Fantasy Fest is going on,” Hedden said. “There’s a kind of ‘anything goes’ energy, and it was just another day.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 8:06 AM.
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