The Night Life

October 23, 2018





Emma







The Night Life

While there are plenty of Fantasy Fest events that happen during the light of day, it is much later, after the sun has long set when the true nature of Fantasy Fest takes place. So after attending the family friendly confines of the Pet Masquerade on Wednesday evening and watching the sun actually set over the event, I still had a long evening ahead on what is one of the busiest nights of the entire week. There are so many events happening at the same time, Duval Street is actually closed off for pedestrians only for the first time and the feeling that Fantasy Fest is in full swing is palpable.







There are so many events going on that it is really impossible to see or attend them all, so I have to be fairly selective about where I end up going. Being assigned a couple of events to photograph makes the choice somewhat easier, but I am not really one to complain, especially when my first assignment of the evening had me at the annual Homemade Bikini Contest at the Smoking Tuna Saloon.









This event is basically just as it sounds, contestants compete before a raucous crowd in bikinis that they create themselves from whatever material (or lack thereof) they can find. It is actually a very creative contest as the bikinis are often quite remarkable. With the theme being about the Games We Play, it seemed this was an especially creative group.









I had the good fortune to be able to hang out with the contestants in the VIP area prior to the start of the event and get some good photos of the bikinis that I never would have been able to get in the packed house out front during the actual contest. There were a few that were true stand-outs including one bikini made out of pieces from the old lite bright game that actually lit up, one created completely out the peeps the marshmallow Easter candy shaped like tiny chicks, there was one based on the game Operation and even one made out of the small wooden chits from Scrabble.









I never hang around long enough to see who actually wins, they tend to drag the competition out as long as possible to help their bottom line, but there were some really good and creative bikinis and some really nice women who were entered. I had a schedule to keep and more places to be that evening. Specifically my next stop was at the burlesque show at Sidebar.

 



The event was called Sidebar’s Sexy Sideshow: A Burlesque Variety Show and featured a number of my friends who coincidentally happen to be the leading burlesque performers on the island. Held at Aqua’s secret backroom, the Sidebar, the evening featured a fabulously fun night of burlesque, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy. My friend Cheeky Derriere was one of the featured performers and had invited me personally so there was no way I was going to miss it.







It was a fun show and once again reminded me how much talent there is on this tiny island, great comedy, fantastic singers and fun and sexy burlesque stars combined for a nice diversion in front of a packed sold-out house at Sidebar. The show started fairly late and when I got out I immediately headed down to a couple of late night parties that I wanted to check out.










Jenn

The first one was at Mary Ellen’s bar and the place was literally standing room only with a massive line down the block of people waiting to get in to the Luv to Glow party. This party has become an annual fixture on the Fantasy Fest schedule since the place opened a few years ago and is one of the most popular mid-week parties on the island.







Jevne




With the place drenched in black lights and glowing clothes and body paint covering the revelers it makes for a cool somewhat surreal experience just being in the place and with DJs Jevne and Jimmy Cooper spinning dance music all night, the dance floor was an undulating, glowing mass of bodies gyrating to the beats. It was really cool and attracted a very fun crowd that is a mix of locals and tourists and is really one of the places to be on Wednesday night.













My final stop of the night was at the ABC (Anything But Clothes) party at the Sandbar Sports Grill. Hosted by local promoter Louie C Rock, the party is billed as a celebrity party with Public Enemy’s Flava Flav scheduled to be the master of ceremonies. It is not a party that I really would normally attend but I really wanted to see and possibly meet Flava Flav, unfortunately he was a no show for some reason and the only thing approaching a celebrity on hand was the annual appearance of a very tired and disinterested Porn star Ron Jeremy.







Ron Jeremy and friend