Hemingway Days 2022

 

July 27, 2022

Hemingway Days 2022

Key West more than its fair share of festivals, events and shenanigans annually but one that is among the highlights of the summer season is the annual Hemingway Days festival which celebrates the career and life in Key West of the legendary writer Ernest Hemingway. The celebration of the Nobel Prize winner salutes his writing achievements, sporting lifestyle and his enjoyment of the Key West lifestyle.

While the event has been a mainstay for years and is fun and funky, I have to believe that the Key West lifestyle that Hemingway actually enjoyed was far removed from anything that takes place during Hemingway Days with the possible exception of the fishing tournament. That doesn’t deter the hundreds of people who show up each year to take in the festivities.

The week-long series of events include a three-day marlin tournament recalling Hemingway’s passion for deep-sea angling, a commemoration of the 123rd anniversary of the author’s July 21 birth, a museum exhibit of rare memorabilia from his life, literary readings and scholars’ presentations, Sloppy Joe’s wacky “Running of the Bulls,” a street fair celebrating Key West’s lively spirit, a 5k run and paddleboard race that salutes Hemingway’s sporting interests, and the announcement of the winner of the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition coordinated by Ernest’s author granddaughter.

Ernest Hemingway lived in Key West from 1931 until late 1939, penning classics including “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not” in a small writing studio behind his Spanish Colonial residence on Whitehead Street. His legacy hangs over the island to this day and this festival helps perpetuate the myths of the man.

Perhaps the highlight of the week is the Hemingway Lookalike competition held at Sloppy Joe’s bar that attracts a huge crowd of contestants all who bear a striking resemblance to Papa Hemingway. This year, as usual there were close to 130 entrants and each night of the week the field is narrowed down until a single entrant is deemed the winner.

It is always fun to be downtown and to see the crowds of Hemingway lookalikes wandering the street and if I go to any events, I will go as I did this year to the Saturday afternoon street fair and the running of the bulls event that has all of the Hemingway contestants parading around the block that includes Sloppy Joe’s.

It doesn’t take long, which is a good thing as being held midday in the heat of the summer makes for a blistering oven-like experience. It was blazing hot again this year, but the entrants did not seem to mind and the event was once again a fun, wacky Key West experience.