Arts & Culture

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. 

Most well-informed Key West visitors are aware that the colorful subtropical island was once home and inspiration to world-renowned writers Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams.

Creative cuisine, premium wines and unique events in a subtropical island setting await attendees Wednesday through Sunday, Jan. 23-27, at the 2019 Key West Food & Wine Festival. The 10th annual festival celebrates Key West’s rich culinary culture and historic sites. 

The Florida Keys’ “sea-to-table” culinary culture is to take center stage for food fans Wednesday, Jan. 30, when Outstanding in the Field presents a gourmet celebration of the island chain’s diverse indigenous seafood and enduring commercial fishing heritage.

A New Year’s Eve “drop” saluting Key West’s heritage as the birthplace of Pan American Airways is to be staged Monday, Dec. 31, in the garden of the airline’s first ticket office.