“It’s Astounding, time is fleeting, madness takes its toll…” -Riff Raff

 

October 27, 2021

“It’s Astounding, time is fleeting, madness takes its toll…” -Riff Raff

The madness that is the annual celebration of Fantasy Fest is well underway now and any thoughts that it might not be worthy without many of its signature events was pushed aside early in the week as the parties and events held in private bars and businesses were just as packed as ever and judging by the nightly crowds on Duval Street, you would never suspect that it wasn’t the usual Fantasy Fest.

I had been hired to photograph the festival and it gave me the reason to go out to as many of these events as possible so I found myself out every night of the week getting a first hand in depth experience into what this year’s festival was like. 

One of the highlights of the week was the return to the Waterfront Playhouse of the crazy, wacky and wonderful musical, “The Rocky Horror Show”. They did a production of the play two years ago and it was such a huge hit that they brought it back for a two-week run that overlapped with Fantasy Fest. Most of the original cast was back including the amazing Christopher Peterson as Frankie.

We had some of our friends in the show as well including Arthur Crocker as Brad, Belle Jampol as Janet and Carolyn Cooper as Columbia. We invited our friends Caitlin and Kat to join us for dinner at Kaya first and then the show. They happily dressed up, as did many in the raucous sold-out crowd. The entire run of the show was a complete sell out. 

It was so fun and so appropriate for Fantasy Fest week. Having seen the film version more than 100 times at Midnight showings, there is nothing quite like seeing a live production, especially one that had so many friends both in the cast and in the audience. After the play, I had to head over and photograph a benefit party for the Florida Keys SPCA at Rick’s Bar.

The next night, I had the assignment to take photos at the 29^th annual Homemade Bikini contest at the Smokin Tuna Saloon. This contest featured a slew of contestants competing for cash prizes for creating the best bikini out of everyday objects that you might find around the house. The emphasis is on the creativity and design of the bikinis and the event was as usual packed. This event is one that combines a creative element with a sexy side that Fantasy Fest is known for. 

I never stay around for the entire contest, as they tend to drag it out, and drag it out so that there is more time to sell food and alcohol. I like to head out onto Duval Street, which was blocked off again and crowded with all manner of costumed revelers. You see all sorts of crazy stuff, and it can often get raunchy and crude. Thankfully I did not witness anything completely gross, as the crowds seemed pretty well behaved and trending noticeably younger than in recent years.

Fantasy Fest

 

October 26, 2021

Renegade Fantasy Fest

Thanks to the Covid pandemic, Fantasy Fest this year was very, very different than any previous year as the organizers and the City of Key West canceled all the events that require a permit or were to be held on city property. This meant that many of the most popular and creative events that usually are held during Fantasy Fest week, were simply gone from the schedule and that only events and parties hosted by private businesses were on the official schedule.

Of course, this being Key West, just canceling an event officially does not mean that it won’t happen and a small group of renegade partiers were determined to continue on by holding “unofficial” events such as the Zombie Bike Ride. This should not come as a surprise to people who have lived here for some time. Back in 2005 when Fantasy Fest was postponed from its traditional date in October until December of that year due to Hurricane Wilma, it did not stop hearty partiers from going out for an impromptu Fantasy Fest celebration on the original date anyway.

After having attended, participated in or photographed Fantasy Fest for over thirty years, I was very unsure about what to expect, but I planned on going to as many of the official functions as possible and try to catch the unofficial ones as well.

My Fantasy Fest had already gotten underway as I had been going around town already taking photos of the 30 entries in the Fantasy Fest Façade contest and that culminated with me joining the official judges one evening as we drove to look at each entry so they could determine the winners. My first official Fantasy Fest party was on Sunday when the Island Farm hosted the Shoktoberfest party.

The island farm is a great location for parties and they had it all decorated in a spooky and scary way for the party that featured Caffeine Carl and his band providing entertainment with food and drinks and even their goats running loose and jumping from table to table searching for any food left unattended.

It was a fun party, so much so that I returned after taking a break to attend the first renegade event of the week, the very loosely organized unofficial Zombie Bike Ride. About 300 riders, far less than the near 10,000 of recent years, but hearkening back to the very first Zombie Bike Ride, were on hand in costume to participate in the ride.

These Zombies were not going to let a little thing like the event being canceled to stop them. The city of Key West obviously anticipated that this might occur and had members of the Key West police department’s motorcycle patrol on hand to escort the riders, starting near the White Street Pier and as they made their way downtown to Duval Street. It was fun and cool to see the enthusiasm of the riders and once they got downtown, the city obliged even more by blocking off a couple of blocks of Duval Street to keep the crowd safe and allow them to spread out. And there was a good crowd, the canceling of many of the events of the week did not seem to have a lot of impact on attendance as the streets were packed, even this early in the week.

So the truncated Fantasy Fest got off to a pretty good start, as sad as it is to see many of my favorite and arguably the most creative events of the week going by the wayside, it is cool to see that for many at least it did not dampen the enthusiasm for what was happening.