Several thousand fans of the late Jimmy Buffett parade Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, during the 2025 Just a Few Friends festival celebrating the famed singer-songwriter’s life and legacy. The festival took place over Labor Day weekend in Key West, Fla., Buffett’s home during some of his most productive years and the subject of many of his enduring songs.
NICK DOLL
Just a Few Friends
Organizers behind a four-day Jimmy Buffett festival held on Labor Day weekend in Key West these two years since the son of a son of a sailor died on Sept. 1, 2023, called their event Just a Few Friends.
Several thousand Jimmy Buffett fans paraded along Key West’s Duval Street on Sunday, Aug. 31, during a Second Line Memorial Walking Parade. That was one of many events over four days that included concerts, book signings, food and drink parties, and walking tours that saluted the life and legacy of Buffett on the island that mutually fed the territorial muse and the talented musician-songwriter.
Buffett branded Key West with his barefoot paradise “Margaritaville” manifesto, and that day job is becoming a Labor Day tradition on the southernmost island.
As fans blew bubbles and bounced beach balls, the Second Line Memorial Walking Parade honoring the late Jimmy Buffett proceeded along Duval Street in Key West, Fla., on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. Highlighting the island’s Just a Few Friends celebration, the march was led by a group including (front left) vocalist Nadirah Shakoor of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band; (center front) his sister Lucy Buffett, renowned restaurateur and cookbook author; and (front right) Keys “trop-rock” musician Howard Livingston. NICK DOLL Just a Few Friends
“I really found myself, I think, as a writer down there. It’s got that uniqueness that will always be there whether I’m there or not. I’m glad that I was able to utilize it and it did as much for me as I hope I did for them and whether it’s putting it on the map or using it as a source of material,” Buffett said.
The parade was led by a group singing “Margaritaville,” including Buffett’s youngest sister Lucy Buffett, a restaurateur and cookbook author who has a home in Key West; vocalist Nadirah Shakoor of his backing Coral Reefer Band; and Keys trop-rock musician Howard Livingston.
“Key West is where Jimmy found his home in his heart, and where he found the niche of his creativity that spurred him into the masses,” Lucy Buffett said during the festival’s kickoff ceremony outside her brother’s Shrimpboat Sound recording studio. “And that’s why all of you all got touched — because of the life that he found when he got here,” she said.
The 2026 Just a Few Friends celebration is scheduled for Sept. 3-7, again over Labor Day weekend, organizers said.
Here’s a look at the second annual party, along with vintage Buffett images from Monroe to Palm Beach counties.
Restaurateur and author Lucy Buffett, sister of the late Jimmy Buffett, accepts a proclamation designating Jimmy Buffett Day from Key West City Commissioner Donie Lee on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, in Key West, Fla. Held outside the singer-songwriter’s Shrimpboat Sound recording studio, the proclamation ceremony kicked off the four-day Just a Few Friends festivities honoring Buffett’s legacy on the island that inspired his signature sound. Nick Doll Just a Few Friends
Nadirah Shakoor, longtime vocalist for the late Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, gave a soulful performance Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, during the Just a Few Friends festival, a Labor Day Weekend celebration of Buffett’s music and legacy in Key West, Fla. Thousands of fans took part in the four-day festivities on the island Buffett called home while developing his famed “trop-rock” sound. NICK DOLL Just a Few Friends
Jimmy Buffett performed at the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre near West Palm Beach, Florida on Dec. 9, 2021. The 2nd Annual Just a Few Friends: Key West Favorite Son Celebration festival on Aug. 29-Sept. 1 pays tribute to Buffett on the island where his career got started in the early-1970s. MATIAS J. OCNER mocner@miamiherald.com
Jimmy Buffett in an undated file photo from the 1970s Key West era that had been provided by his former manager, the late Don Light. Don Light Talent Inc.
The Miami Herald staff photo that ran to accompany a review of Jimmy Buffett’s concerts at the Gusman theater in downtown Miami on Aug. 14-16, 1978. These concerts were recorded and form much of that 1978 Christmas-season’s classic live double-album release of Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band’s “You Had to Be There.” Murry Sill Miami Herald file
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
Miami Herald consumer trends reporter Howard Cohen, a 2017 Media Excellence Awards winner, has covered pop music, theater, health and fitness, obituaries, municipal government, breaking news and general assignment. He started his career in the Features department at the Miami Herald in 1991. Cohen is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Communication.Support my work with a digital subscription
