MARGARITAVILLE BASEMENT
Jimmy Buffett would feel at home
From the outside, Stefan Hoffman’s house fits right into its south Regina location.
But if you walk inside, past his tasteful but normal living room and kitchen into the basement, you are transported to a tropical paradise, affectionately known as Margaritaville by Parrot Heads around the globe.
A Parrot Head, for those who don’t already know, is a fan of musical artist Jimmy Buffett. Margaritaville, wherever and everywhere it is, is the natural habitat to which Parrot Heads flock.
Margaritaville is also the name of one of Buffett’s hits, released in 1977.
You have probably heard it if you have listened to music basically anywhere at any time over the last 30 years and likely know the chorus: “Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville, searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt.”
Hoffman is arguably Regina’s biggest Parrot Head and his basement, with its colourful walls, sand-coloured carpet, Buffett memorabilia and ship-designed bar, is his own personal Margaritaville.
“You kind of have to escape somewhere. If you can’t go on a trip, you can escape to a place in your mind where there is a beach, a drink, girls in bikinis, the sun. That’s sort of the whole idea of Margaritaville,” he says, a can of Buffett’s signature Land Shark beer in hand. “It’s not really a place. It’s more of a mindset of you go to a place in your mind to escape. It’s a place you go to hang out and relax.”
The work he put into creating the space was “time-consuming, but well worth it, for sure,” and is now a space for him to escape to or gather with friends and family.
His self-described addiction to Buffett started innocently enough. Shortly after graduating high school he bought a two-disc album of some of the recording artist’s greatest hits (Meet Me in Margaritaville).
“Eventually I got kind of deeper into stuff, then deeper and deeper. You graduate to other albums and it’s quite good,” he said.
If the music was the hook, attending one of Buffett’s legendary shows was the sinker for Hoffman.
“I went to a show and thought, ‘This is the best thing ever, like, why doesn’t everybody go to Buffett? Like, this is insane’,” he says.
People line up early in the morning to get a spot at the tailgate parties before the shows. There is food, drinks, live bands, pools, hot tubs, tiki bars and more, all supplied by the fans who flock to see Buffett.
“People are really what make it because you go to these tailgates and everyone is so friendly. They ’ll water you, they’ll feed you,” says Hoffman. “Complete strangers, they are just accepting of everybody and we have a great time.”
Unlike with most other musicians, attending a Buffett show is a weekend event. After the tailgate parties is an actual show, which typically features at least two hours of the now 71-year-old Buffett performing.
Hoffman has been to 16 of those shows and is going to six more in Paris come September and one performance in Arizona this October. Next year, he hopes to attend 10 Buffett shows.
During the time in between, he can always escape to his own personal Margaritaville.