Arts & Culture

Lobster lovers can satisfy their crustacean cravings in Key West Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 8-11, during the 23rd annual Key West Lobsterfest. The flavorful festival celebrates the Aug. 6 start of the Florida Keys lobster season with a long weekend of tasty events, highlighted by an open-air lobster feast on the island’s famed Duval Street.

Planning a summer getaway to Marathon and the middle Florida Keys? Check with local residents to find out which eateries they recommend to visiting family, friends and newcomers eager to discover the islands’ eats. Here’s a handful of recommendations to help you maximize enjoyment with minimal research.

Austrian art photographer Andreas Franke is to premier a second series of his famed “The Sinking World” on the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg during the shipwreck’s 10-year sinking anniversary celebration set for May 23-27 in Key West.

Music and culture are to take center stage for Upper Keys audiences during the annual Afro Roots Fest, set for May 26 in Islamorada and June 29 in Key Largo. The festival spotlights acclaimed performers from the Caribbean, the Americas and Africa during events that transcend genre and appeal to a wide range of listeners.

The second six months of each year in the Florida Keys & Key West are always festive, with lively and offbeat events throughout the 125-mile-long island chain. There are always only-in-the Keys activities for visitors eager to enjoy marine life and the unique environment, fresh dock-to-dish seafood and luscious cuisine and the engagingly laid-back atmosphere of the Keys.

Behind-the-scenes tours of Florida’s only presidential museum, discussions of former President Harry S. Truman’s efforts to promote fire safety and historic preservation, and presentations by experts await attendees at the 17th annual Truman Legacy Symposium in Key West. 

An elite collection of musicians from Tennessee to Texas is to gather in the Florida Keys for the Key Largo Original Music Festival, scheduled Thursday through Sunday, May 16-19. The four-day-festival’s live, knee-slapping and foot-tapping performances are designed to excite all ages and tastes. 

Audiences can celebrate world music with an emphasis on Cuban rhythms during the annual Afro Roots Fest showcase in Key West. Music and film events are planned Thursday through Saturday, April 18-20, in multiple venues around the Florida Keys island that lies just 90 miles from Havana.

The Florida Keys are renowned for having a large population of visual artists, while creative spirits from other places come to experience the ever-changing tropical light and depict a uniquely engaging locale. 

Key West Theater, undergoing a dramatic transformation as a cultural hub for the island city’s arts and music community, has put Key West on the radar of top musicians, comedians, artists and entertainers.