Vol. 1, No. 7

May 2005

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Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau

Those with appearances akin to Ernest Hemingway gather in Key West each July for the annual “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest.

Array of Events Equals Summertime Fun in the Florida Keys

By Josie Gulliksen
Florida Keys News Bureau

Hardly a summer weekend goes by in the Florida Keys without a special event or festival taking place. The choices are endless, ranging from powerboat races to culinary, musical, historical and cultural celebrations, and quirky off-the-wall events featuring underwater music and chickens.

But even before summer officially kicks off, the Keys are the venue for several events popular with visitors.

Songwriters are to converge for the 10th annual Key West Songwriters’ Festival, May 11-15, with America’s foremost hit makers performing in intimate, audience-friendly island settings.

Two powerboat races are to take place in Marathon, beginning with the Marathon Offshore Grand Prix May 12-15 and followed by the City of Marathon Super Boat Grand Prix June 10-12, where world-class high-speed vessels race through the waters surrounding the historic Seven Mile Bridge.

Visitors can taste the culinary delicacies indigenous to the Florida Keys and enjoy live music during the Island Festival in Islamorada, May 14-15, when the area’s best chefs showcase their specialties and local bands entertain the crowds. Then the dog days of summer are made a little tastier during the Key West Summer Food & Wine Festival, July 30-Aug. 8, featuring gourmet wine dinners and classes, cocktail galas and dessert tastings.

Several historic events take place throughout the year including the Harry S. Truman Legacy Symposium, which examines the life and impact of the former president who loved Key West. This year’s symposium, themed “Quest for Peace in the Middle East,” is scheduled for May 13-14. Summer brings the annual Cuban American Heritage Festival, a showcase of the rich Cuban customs and culture still present on the island. The Key West event is slated for June 12-18.

The following month, the historic discovery of the Spanish shipwreck Nuestra Señora de Atocha is the focus of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society’s “Diving into Glory: The Atocha 20 Years Later,” scheduled July 17-23. Discovered 35 miles off Key West after a 16-year search, the shipwreck is regarded as one of the 20th century’s most important underwater finds. It has yielded more than $400 million in artifacts and treasure including gold and silver bars, coins, rare navigational instruments and weapons.

The “One Human Family” approach to living in Key West is celebrated during PrideFest Key West June 4-12; and Womenfest, featuring art shows, water activities and comedy performances Sept. 6-11.

Offbeat and unique events of the Florida Keys dot the calendar as well. One example is ChickenFest Key West, June 16-19, a celebration that honors the vivacious, living, breathing, squawking Key West chicken with a variety of lighthearted events culminating in the “Poultry in Motion” parade.

The following month on July 9 is the 21st annual Underwater Music Festival, a quirky concert broadcast underwater for divers and snorkelers, held at Looe Key in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This year’s theme is “AquaCulture: Music and Art in the Key of Sea.” And in October, divers carve pumpkins among the fishes during the annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest held in Key Largo as part of the island’s Halloween festivities.

In July, Hemingway Days draws fans of Ernest Hemingway’s literature and lifestyle to Key West, the island where the author lived and wrote throughout the 1930s. The 25th anniversary of the event, which features a look-alike contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, author readings and presentations, the catch-and-release Drambuie Key West Marlin fishing tournament, the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and an offbeat “Running of the Bulls,” is scheduled for July 19-24.

In late August and early September the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary takes center stage with an annual natural phenomenon scuba diving enthusiasts have dubbed “Sex on the Reef.” It’s the annual coral spawning ritual and dive shops throughout the area –- especially off Key Largo — conduct evening excursions to witness the ritual some compare to an upside-down, underwater snowstorm.

Slated for the fall is the Florida Keys Birding & Wildlife Festival, Oct. 1-2, held in Marathon and the Lower Keys, celebrating the natural wonders of Florida wildlife during peak season. Islamorada’s rich heritage is at the center of the Indian Key Festival, set for early October, where significant historic events from the area are re-enacted.

The most outrageous of all fall events in the Florida Keys is the 27th annual Key West Fantasy Fest, themed “Freaks, Geeks & Goddesses,” Oct. 21-30. The 10-day masking and costuming celebration features elaborate costume competitions, promenades and street fairs, masquerade galas and a grand parade with lavish floats and eccentric marching groups.

For more information about the Florida Keys & Key West, including a complete schedule of events, visit the Keys Web site at www.fla-keys.com. Or, in the U.S. and Canada, call toll-free 1-800-FLA-KEYS.

By Bob Serata
Florida Keys News Bureau

KEY LARGO, Florida Keys — The prestigious “Smithsonian” Magazine has selected John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo as one of its seven special getaway locations in its “Destination America” feature published in April.

Photo by Steve Frink/Fla. Keys News Bureau Though actually situated outside of state waters, the Christ of the Deep statue is recognized as a Pennekamp icon.

Pennekamp is the first undersea preserve in the United States and is Florida’s most visited state park, hosting more than a million visitors each year. The park was the only location in Florida to be recognized by “Smithsonian”.

Besides underwater offerings, author Marialisa Calta also highlighted the park’s broad range of recreational and educational experiences including scuba diving, snorkeling from the beach, kayaking a water trail, and walking the boardwalk through a tropical hammock.

“It is gratifying ‘Smithsonian’ chose Key Largo’s Pennekamp,” said Harold Wheeler, director of the Florida Keys & Key West tourism council. “This recognition shows that nature-based tourism should be included in cultural tourism offerings, and the Florida Keys are noted for their environmental resources.”

Other destinations noted by “Smithsonian” included the Custer’s Little Big Horn battlefield in Hardin, Mont.; Eudora Welty’s garden in Jackson, Miss.; and Cape Cod’s scenic byway.

By Carol Shaughnessy
Florida Keys News Bureau

KEY WEST, Florida Keys — Its body is just 2.5 inches long, it’s at least 90 miles away from home and its skunk-like aroma prompted researchers to dub it “Stinky Phil.” But the unprepossessing Cuban fig-eating bat (Phyllops falcatus) that has taken up residence in the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden has made history as the first of its species ever sighted in the continental United States.

The bat was discovered by students from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences who were surveying for moths in the botanical garden, and was identified by Dr. Ted Fleming of the University of Miami. Cynthia Marks, executive director of the nonprofit Florida Bat Center, captured it, recorded its presence and confirmed its identity before returning it to the garden.

“Stinky Phil” is a resident of the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden.

The tropical forest and botanical garden, the only frost-free tropical moist forest garden in the continental United States, offers a particularly rich environment for fauna including bats. The 7.5-acre tract contains more than 170 species of trees and plants, including more than 30 endangered species, and the dense foliage that provides the protected roosts bats prefer.

Because the lower Florida Keys are so close to the Caribbean islands and only 90 miles from Cuba, Marks said, rare specimens of Neotropical bats occasionally show up in Key West and adjoining Stock Island.

Marks and other researchers believe “Stinky Phil” is a lone representative of his species who lost his way — or was blown over from Cuba during hurricanes that churned the Caribbean but bypassed the Florida Keys in the summer of 2004.

The bat’s presence in Key West has prompted Carolann Sharkey, president of the Key West Botanical Garden Society that manages the garden, to begin creating a “Stinky Phil” Bat Center and exhibit near the area where the creature is regularly sighted. Slated to open in the summer of 2005, the center is to include information on Cuban fig-eating bats and other bat species, as well as a telescope that visitors can use to scan the foliage for Phil.

For more travel information on the Florida Keys:
www.fla-keys.com