Fantasy Finale

 

November 2, 2021

Fantasy Finale

The final night of the 2021 Fantasy Fest week reached a point later in the evening of Saturday night when I was basically finished with my official photography duties and was on my own to at last try and just enjoy the celebration. I was already downtown and had no place that I needed to be, so I choose to instead do my own thing. 

Hanging out with friends, going to places that I wanted to go rather than where some special Fantasy Fest party was happening. Not that it mattered that much, Fantasy Fest on Saturday night basically takes over the entire entertainment section of downtown Key West and costumed partiers can be found at every place you may go. Duval Street was blocked off for almost its entire length and thousands poured into the street as the bars and nightclubs overflowed. 

Personally, I could not tell much difference between the post-parade atmosphere downtown of previous years with this year, other than the fact that there has been no parade. People were still out in force and unlike many of the other nights, I ran into a pretty good number of locals out as well. Of course, being on my own, I tended to go to some of my favorite establishments which also happen to be favorites among a large portion of the local community.

Some of the bars I hit up on Saturday night included, the Green Parrot, General Horseplay, MaryEllen’s, the Smokin’ Tuna and 2-2 & Company. All of them were doing a bang-up bit of business and I saw friends at each location as well as out along Duval Street. It was a really fun time, the best time I had all week in fact, mostly because I could just kick back and relax and enjoy being out with friends in a way that had been rare indeed over the past year and a half.

I even stopped by Wyland Gallery where my buddy Wyland was on hand painting as he is every year on Fantasy Fest, he draws a huge crowd and has some significant sales when he is on hand in person. Just because I was not officially on duty, doesn’t mean I put my camera away and the photos below hopefully capture some of the essence of Fantasy Fest is like to experience. 

Hopefully next year, things will be back to more normal footing and the beloved events that had to be canceled this year will be back on the schedule. But I have to say after experiencing 31 years of Fantasy Fest in some capacity that the organizers and those hosting parties and events deserve kudos for pulling off a safe, fun and enjoyable Fantasy Fest this year, in spite of such major obstacles. 

I think Fantasy Fest is in good hands and continues to head in a good direction with more emphasis on creativity and less of the more sordid and raunchy elements that came close to taking the event over completely just a few years ago. It stills draws some of that element, but certainly less than in the recent past and hopefully that trend will continue. 

It constantly annoys me that so many naysayers complain about Fantasy Fest, without having been downtown to see and experience it since the new organizers took over, I guess it is hard to shake the bad reputation, which frankly was well-deserved but is steadily being moved away from.