Key West Fantasy Fest a huge success
KEY WEST, Fla. — The 10-day Fantasy Fest costuming and masking celebration ended late Sunday in Key West after nearly 100 events with an increased emphasis on imaginative costuming and decreases in past years’ decadence.
Tens of thousands of spectators filled the subtropical island’s historic downtown Saturday night for Fantasy Fest’s highlight event, a parade featuring more than 40 motorized floats and costumed marching groups.
Illustrating the festival’s move toward a more PG-rated focus, its 2023 theme was “Uniforms and Unicorns … 200 Years of Sailing into Fantasy,” in salute to the Florida Keys’ bicentennial and that of the U.S. Navy’s presence in Key West.
“The parade really demonstrated the festival’s direction away from decadent aspects and into good fun and off-the-charts creativity,” Fantasy Fest director Nadene Grossman Orr said. “It feels like Fantasy Fest has entered a new era of creative expression.”
Parade standouts included a uniformed group with huge blue wings depicting the Navy’s elite Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron, dancers in unicorn headdresses performing acrobatic feats and an elaborate float and marching ensemble portraying a Kentucky Derby for unicorns.
Florida Keys tourism officials said Fantasy Fest brings about $30 million in annual revenue to the island chain and provides important fundraising opportunities for local nonprofit organizations. The 2023 campaign for festival king and queen raised more than $587,000 for the Florida Keys Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.