The Smallest Parade in the Universe

March 6, 2019

 

 

The Smallest Parade in the Universe

Key West hosts any number of parades, I recall when I lived and worked back in the mid-nineties on Duval Street that there seemed like there was a parade of some sort about every other weekend. Holiday Parades like the Christmas parade, Veteran’s Day parade, St. Patrick’s day bar stroll and more to parades for things like the powerboat races, pride week, and of course Fantasy Fest. We are a parade having town. 

Liz

A few years ago, some creative minds created a new and completely unique new parade, the Smallest Parade in the Universe, was created as part of the official Fantasy Fest activities. This year for the first time the parade has been moved to March as a stand-alone event to benefit the MARC House and was held for the second year at the Key West Theater.

Artists from throughout the Keys create small, 18” inch floats that are conveyed down a miniature version of Duval Street that was created by artist Rick Worth. The entire thing is filmed and shown live on the big screen for those who are not seated near the front. The artistic creations are then auctioned off after the parade and all the funds raised go to support the MARC House. Like most Key West parties, the cause is a good one.

 

Landon

This year, Kathy and I were fortunate enough to be invited to join our friend Nadene at one of the tables she had reserved for the Fantasy Fest team and we had a great vantage point to watch the parade as it slowly made its way down the mini Duval Street. The event was hosted by our friend Landon Bradbury who served as MC and chief auctioneer for the floats.

The Judges 

Gordon

The event is also competitive as a team of judges, rank the entrants with a cash prize for the top three entries, but in my estimation, there really are no losers as the floats are really wonderful, creative works of art by some of the Keys best artists. In spite of hectic bidding wars, Kathy and I walked off winning two of the tiny floats to take home and add to our wonderful and eclectic art collection.

 

March has been the start of one of my favorite seasons of the year, the kick-off of the 2019 IndyCar World Series in St. Petersburg, Florida. I have been attending the race in S. Pete for years, and for the past few years going on my own. This year, Kathy decided to join me for what is always a fun a busy race weekend there. We also decided to drive from Key West to St. Pete.

 

Since we were driving, we took the opportunity to make a nice stop along the way at beautiful and historic Venice, Florida on the Gulf Coast, a couple of hours south of St. Petersburg. When I was a young kid, I used to visit Venice with my grandparents when we would stay in Longboat Key. The draw to Venice is that it is known as “The Shark Tooth Capital of the World”.

The reason for this is that Venice is one of the few places in the world where literally thousands of fossilized shark teeth, as well as other small vertebrae wash ashore on Venice’s beautiful beaches each day. The beaches are packed with fossil hunters who use straining devices to sift through the sand to find the shiny black fossilized shark teeth. Some people on the beach were kind enough to loan us a scooper device and we had some pretty good success as we found maybe two dozen cool fossilized teeth in a little over an hour.

The Venice stop was a wonderful way to start a weekend away, the weather was sunny and beautiful, the beach was amazing and the experience was really a lot of fun. Something about the fun of discovering a shiny glimmering ancient shark tooth among the sand and debris scooped out of the beach floor is really exciting and rewarding. I see why so many people are enthralled by the search.

Finally Kathy and I want to take the opportunity to welcome home our friend Andy who recently completed another overseas deployment in the US Air Force. His wife Dakota and baby Sloane are thrilled to have him back in the US. Kathy and I are heading out to New Mexico to see them all, but wanted to take a moment to welcome Andy home and thank him and all those currently serving in our Armed Forces.

http://www.thesmallestparadeintheuniverse.com/