Fantasy Fest

Now that my computer woes are in temporary (as all things computer are, at least woes) abeyance, I am able to turn my attention to more important things - such as telling what tales I may of the activities at our local (a 5 hour drive is local here) Halloween festivities.  I speak of Fantasy Fest in Key West, Florida, USA.

The photo above shows just a part of the decorations at the B&B we stay at.  The proprietor's wife spent three days, with the help of the cleaning staff (one guy.....it's only 12 rooms after all), putting up the decorations.  It was worth it, the house took first place in the decoration contest in the commercial category, for the second year in a row, even with the fog machine out of.....fog when the judges drove up.  At the end of the week she left for her day job (out of town), leaving husband (and aforesaid cleaning staff) to remove and store the decorations.Such is married life.

The celebration itself is a week long bacchanal of costumes (or lack thereof), food, music, parades, bodypaint (see also "lack of costumes" mentioned previously), crowds, et al (al. includes drink).  About 60,000 people come into town for the event, crowding into less than a mile along one street for the most part.  The finale is a parade on Saturday night which took 4 hours to finish, throwing beads, taking pictures and kissing girls the whole 1.5 miles.  In between the start and finish of the week are multiple parties every night, mostly at drinking establishments for some reason.  Don't think this actually encourages imbibing of spirits however, it cannot for the partys, and thus the bars, are so crowded that it is difficult to get enough to drink, let alone too much.

Tomorrows post, assuming I survive the night, will be a discussion of the Sunday and Monday partys.  Pirate theme Sunday turned to a Fetish/BDSM theme on Monday.