Arts & Culture

Celtic history, culture, food and music are to be featured at the Florida Keys Celtic Festival, a favorite Middle Keys event for families, scheduled Friday through Sunday, Jan. 10-12, 2020.

KEY WEST, Fla. — Supersized dancing bells, disco queens and over-the-top salutes to musical icons entertained revelers during Saturday night’s Fantasy Fest Parade, the highlight of Key West’s 10-day costuming and masking festival that ends Sunday.

The parade featured more than 40 floats and elaborately costumed marching groups, proceeding through Key West’s historic downtown in front of about 60,000 spectators, according to organizers.

Some parade entries illustrated the festival’s musical theme, “In Tune But … Off Key,” including a huge and colorful “living orchestra” of marching instruments conducted by a large replica of the legendary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

 

Other standouts included a troupe of Caribbean-style dancers in sparkling feather-adorned costumes, grass-skirted patrons at a traveling tiki bar and a squad of Oompa-Loompas from the fictional “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Florida Keys tourism officials said Fantasy Fest brings approximately $30 million in revenues to the island chain each year.

Fantasy Fest 2020 is to be themed “Roaring 20-20’s and Future Fictions!” and is scheduled for Oct. 16-25.

 

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Revelers showed off their most creative headdress regalia at Key West's Headdress Ball, a highlight of the 10-day Fantasy Fest costuming and masking celebration that continues through Sunday, Oct. 27.

Film aficionados can immerse themselves in cinematic offerings during the eighth annual Key West Film Festival from Wednesday, Nov. 20, through Sunday, Nov. 24, showcasing intriguing Florida, Cuba, LGBTQ and ecological themes.

Visitors can experience sights, sounds and flavors recalling Key West’s Bahamian heritage at the family-friendly Goombay Festival scheduled Friday and Saturday, Oct. 18-19.

When rock icons Mick Jagger and David Bowie performed “Dancing in the Street,” the lyrics didn’t mention Key West’s Masquerade March. But they should have, because each year several thousand masked and costumed revelers dance, promenade and strut their stuff in the madcap march along the island’s scenic streets.

Revelers can showcase their most creative masks and outrageous headdress regalia at the 37th annual Headdress Ball slated for Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Key West Amphitheater located at Truman Waterfront Park.

Known as a haven for sun-seekers, Key West might seem an unusual place for creatures of the dark to congregate — except, that is, during the annual Zombie Bike Ride. Thousands of “the bicycling dead” are to prowl the island’s Atlantic Ocean shoreline and streets Sunday, Oct. 20, during the eerie yet oddly lighthearted event.