The World’s Smallest Parade

 

October 24, 2021

The World’s Smallest Parade

Fantasy Fest 2021 is destined to be a unique and very different experience from any that have gone before due to the cancelation of so many of the traditional tentpole events due to the Covid pandemic. With some of the best events including Goombay, the Zombie Bike Ride, Masquerade March and Saturday Parade all gone, it was anybody’s guess what the week would actually be like.

In some cases, such as a cool event held at Nelson English Park on the Saturday when Goombay would be happening, people planned things to fill the void left by not having Goombay. The event was a creation of a Goombay quilt with San Francisco based artist William Rhodes, who is doing an artist residency at the Studios of Key West. 

Key West residents, especially those from the Bahama Village neighborhood were invited to the park to create colorful squares of fabric individually that celebrated the community of Bahama Village, it’s history and significance in the Key West community. The individual squares would be joined together to create a collaborative quilt that could be added to each year.

It was a cool and successful event, especially for a first-time event as members of the community of all ages turned out to create their quilt squares. It was so cool to see and hopefully in the future when Goombay returns it will be incorporated as part of the annual event.

After the quilting event, I headed over to Clinton Square Market where my friends Grant and Jenn were celebrating the Grand Opening of their new Christmas shop, Twisted Tinsel. It is a cute little shop featuring all manner of Christmas ornaments, decorations and more. Hopefully the location in Clinton Square, which is just next to the Mallory Square Pier where thousands gather each evening for the sunset celebration will prove to be a successful home for the shop.

Next, I was off to The Studios of Key West to photograph the sixth annual “Smallest Parade in the Universe”. The parade which features small floats created by local artists which parade down a miniature version of Duval Street created by artist Rick Worth has been an annual fixture. But this year, for the first time, the event was virtual, being broadcast on the internet live rather than an in-person event as it always has been.

This is a concession made due to Covid, though the product itself did not seem impacted that much as Landon Bradbury was the MC for the evening, there was a full complement of creative and interesting floats and the broadcast actually looked fantastic. The only potential downside is that usually the floats are auctioned off after the parade as a fundraiser for the MARC House and this year bid had to be made online. 

But it was a great event and I felt fortunate to be one of the few people to actually be on-hand to see it in person. A bonus for those watching is that the theme for Fantasy Fest 2022 was announced during the broadcast and it is….drumroll please…”Cult Classics and Cartoon Chaos”.

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October 20, 2021

Home

It is always nice to return home after being away, especially during what is always the start of the busiest time of the year for me. The months between October and February are generally so full of activities and functions that I have often likened it to being on a rollercoaster that doesn’t slow down until early in the new year. Of course, the past 18 months have been quite different with virtually everything that generally makes this time of year so frenetic being canceled.

I must admit that ion many ways taking a break from everything for a year was sort of cool and relaxing. But with Covid cases dropping, events have started happening at mostly full capacity and it is time to board the rollercoaster again and buckle in.

I am not complaining, actually I love having a full social calendar and almost as soon as we returned from our trip, things kicked into gear and we were back out and about. We had a wonderful dinner at Benihana with our friend Meredith and her mother Nadene, while dad Trevor was off picking up their new puppy, Vinny- who we are very much looking forward to meeting.

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We also attended a wonderful production of “Alice in Wonderland” put on by the Key West Dance Collective at the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center. The dance group featured dancers aging in range from 3 or 4 years old up through high school. Our friends Dani and Jim’s daughter Ryan starred in the production playing the role of Alice and she was terrific, a really talented dancer. The most fun though was seeing the youngest children in their adorable little costumes dancing and trying so hard to keep up. It was just a fun afternoon out.

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Perhaps the coolest event we have attended in a long time was the 50^th birthday party of our friend Layla. She transformed the West Martello Gardens into a magical setting for her costumed masquerade ball and invited a huge crowd of her eclectic friends to a party that featured an amazing dinner as well as dancing and frivolity late into the evening.

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One of the great things about living in Key West is the people and Layla knows a lot of people from her varied and artistic life here, so there was all manner of fun, creative and interesting people at the party. Many who we already knew but also some great people who we met for the first time. The party was one of the most unique and cool parties that we have ever attended, and we had a great time.

This month also features what has traditionally been the largest and most popular event held annually in Key West, Fantasy Fest. The ten-day celebration of creativity and craziness was canceled altogether last year, and this year the plan is to scale the festivities way back due to Covid. All of the events that require a city permit have been canceled.

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That means that most of my most favorite events including the Zombie Bike Ride, Masquerade March, Goombay Festival, Street Fair, Pet Masquerade and the main Saturday night parade are not happening, basically only events held at private locations will go on as scheduled. So, a much scaled back Fantasy Fest week is upcoming. In the meantime, I have been asked to take photos of all the entries in the annual Façade contest, which is going on as usual, so I have been busy going out and taking photos of the close to thirty entries.

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