Ever since I retired to Fort Myers, in 2012, many locals recommended I attend the Fantasy Festival in Key West Florida.
I had heard of the festival while living in the DC metro area along with the two Daytona Bike Weeks one in the spring and again in the fall along with the many jokes identifying Florida as Gods waiting room because of the volume of retirees.
Based on what I was told about the festival, I was not excited or intrigued to attend with reported crowds in the thousands, and constant nudity visible throughout the event.
What many who spoke of the festival were not aware is my history with large crowds in the DC metro area, where I attended events on the National Mall like the fourth of July celebrations, concerts in the parks, and many other significant events where I was among three or five hundred thousands people in attendance. So, in a way, I had my fill of enormously large crowds of people displaying everything and anything imaginable.
The history of the Fantasy Festival in Key West Florida began in 1979 when a small group of Key West locals created the festival to bring visitors to the island in what was a typically quiet time of the year with beautiful cooling temperatures before the snowbirds began arriving in November and December.
Well, it worked, Fantasy Fest has grown every year since its inception and is considered one of the wildest extravaganzas the town of Key West host yearly! The festival has a daily scheduled of events like the Zombie Bike Ride I photographed.
Another one of my favorites was “Tutu-Tuesday,” (photos to come) along with Dantes 12th annual Halos and Horns pool party and various other themed events and gathering, providing you with all of the people watching your eyes can endure.
The featured image of this blog post is of a nomadic traveler who was dressed by Key West’s own painter extraordinaire Pam Hobbs.
I recommend you visit Key West during the Fantasy festival with a daily schedule of events, there is something for everyone.
The Zombie Bike Ride is a family event with many children and their parents dressing up with body paint, handmade costumes and using the human imagination to create ideas based on the festival’s theme, “Boardgames.”
PS: More photos to come. 🙂
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