Es Tu Tu?

October 22, 2018





Morgan and Marky







Es Tu Tu?

This year was the tenth anniversary Tutu party, which is held Tuesday night of each year’s Fantasy Fest week. The first Tutu party was a small affair of perhaps 75 friends and was held at Martin’s restaurant on Duval Street. It was the brainchild of the creative and ingenious Chris Shultz who wanted a silly, fun alternative to the crazy and increasingly lurid official Fantasy fest events. It was a smash success, I mean what is sillier than seeing a bunch of grown mean (and women) wearing tutus.





Jenn





Word of how fun and cool the event spread quickly and for the next few years, the event moved across Duval Street to the much larger Mango’s restaurant, utilizing at first just the downstairs but as the masses grew, the party took over the entire place including the large upstairs section. The party managed to maintain the silly yet cool vibe in spite of the huge increase in attendance.

Travis

Lea and Effie





It became one of the highlights of the Fantasy Fest week even though it was not an official Fantasy Fest event at the time and was probably the best local party of the entire year in Key West. The creativity and effort that people put into their Tutu costumes matched anything that you would see at any event and the event was a must attend part of the week as it continued to grow and grow.









It got so big that for the last few years it moved to the massive Waterfront Brewery where revelers continued to just jam pack the party and there were literally thousands partying to multiple DJs and live music on every level of the huge establishment. When it was announced that this year, the party was moving to its fourth location to celebrate its tenth anniversary, I was curious if it might be finally negatively impacted. The complex where it was held this year included General Horseplay, Club A, 22 & Company and the strip bar Teasers.

Chris and Kathy

Morgan

Lea, Kate and Effie



The maze like complex turned out to be the best venue yet as it was so cool to basically have multiple parties occurring at the same time in the various bars. Teasers was especially cool as the strippers were given the night off, leaving the stripper poles and champagne rooms free to be taken over by the Tutu clad partiers, who took full advantage of being able to dance and party on stage swinging on the poles.













The party actually started well before arriving at the final site as once again there was a Tutu pre-party and bar stroll that meandered from Mary Ellen’s to First Flight to the Tiki House and beyond before arriving at General Horseplay for the actual party. A few hundred people participated in the pre-party. One of the coolest things is that the Tutu party demands that you must be wearing a Tutu to enter, meaning that everyone will be in some sort of costume including many who go all out.







The best DJs in Key West and even some from out of town are on hand for the party and there are multiple dance locations spread throughout the venues, which allows for a sort of different feel in each place. Marky and his crew from Wonderdog Studios once again did all the set-up and decorating and transformed a fairly common Strip club into a magical Fantasyland.  It was truly a fantastic party, and while crowded as ever, completely manageable and never the sardine feeling that I thought might happen.





Kathy and Beth



There are still a lot of familiar faces around, but I think the number of us that have been to the event every year continues to dwindle, I am guessing that there may be less than ten of us who have been all ten years, but the energy brought about by the new people continues to stagger and amaze me. You would think that the party would eventually jump the shark, but it just seems to get stronger and stronger each year.



Jevne and Nick



With the Zombie Bike Ride and Tutu party having now been made part of the official Fantasy Fest event schedule and still remaining two of the best parties of the week, Fantasy Fest 2018 is off to an amazingly good start, with much more fun and excitement to come.