Vol. 1, No. 8

June 2005

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Photos by Andy Newman

Joe Liszka, president of the organization that produces ChickenFest Key West, addresses the Key West City Commmission with a live rooster at his side.

Chicken Official Bird
of Key West?

By Andy Newman
Florida Keys News Bureau

It can’t be true. Can it?

Yes, organizers of Key West’s annual chicken festival actually did convince the local city commission to declare the chicken the “official bird of Key West.”

But the fowl’s status will only be valid during ChickenFest Key West, set for June 16-19.

When he submitted text for a proclamation, Joe Liszka, president of the organization that produces ChickenFest Key West, wanted chickens to have official status year-round.

But Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley altered the final version, reducing the period to just four days.

“You have no idea of how many phone calls I’ve gotten,” said Weekley. “There are other birds more appropriate on a year-round basis.”

As the revised proclamation was read, Liszka stood at the podium with a live rooster.

The Original Key West Chickens strut during last year’s “Poultry in Motion” Parade.

The announcement marked a new twist in the ongoing saga of Key West’s free-ranging chickens. In 2004, they faced deportation after city officials hired a chicken catcher to round up and relocate half the city’s estimated 2,000 birds to a mainland farm.

The plan unraveled after the chicken catcher, a local barber and amateur ornithologist, got his feathers ruffled by poultry proponents.

ChickenFest Key West is to feature four days of family-friendly fowl play. Organizers have hatched a schedule that includes a competition for the best-looking “drumsticks,” a chicken look-alike contest, a beauty pageant for feathered chicks and the Poultry in Motion Parade.

For more information about ChickenFest, click here to visit the official ChickenFest Web site.

Photo by Bill Keogh

At the 2004 Underwater Music Festival, Sebrina Marina Alfonso, the conductor of the Key West Symphony, led this mock underwater orchestra.

By Carol Shaughnessy
Florida Keys News Bureau

The concept of “aquaculture” is to achieve a whole new meaning Saturday, July 9, when divers and snorkelers explore an undersea art gallery during the 21st annual Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival.

The unique festival showcases the colorful diversity of marine life that characterizes North America’s only living coral barrier reef. As many as 600 divers and snorkelers typically gather each year for the sub-sea songfest at Looe Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary located approximately six miles south of Big Pine Key.

Staged by Keys radio station WCNK 98.7 Conch FM, the quirky concert is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Marine melodies are to range from the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” and Jimmy Buffett’s “Fins” to humpback whale songs and other water-themed selections, with the music broadcast underwater via Lubell Laboratory speakers suspended beneath boats positioned at the reef.

While aquaculture typically means fish farming, festival organizers have themed the 2005 festival “AquaCulture: Music and Art in the Key of Sea,” to celebrate the vibrant cultural community in the Florida Keys.

A group of culture “afishionados” is to spotlight both music and art by “playing” aquatic anthems on a collection of musical instruments created by Florida Keys artist August Powers. There’s something undeniably fishy about these instruments, however: they include a trombonefish, a staghorn, a manta-lin, a fiddle crab and a drumfish.

In addition, an underwater exhibition is to showcase approximately 20 pieces of “new wave” art created by Lower Keys artist Barbara Hettinger and her cohorts at Artists in Paradise Gallery on Big Pine Key.

As well as being a one-of-a-kind event for divers and snorkelers, the annual Underwater Music Festival carries a serious message of coral reef preservation. The musical broadcast incorporates diver awareness announcements, written and recorded by Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary officials, offering tips on how people can enjoy the ocean while minimizing the impact on the coral reef ecosystem and overall marine environment.

People interested in diving into culture at the 2005 Underwater Music Festival can charter space aboard boats run by Lower Keys dive operators. Visitors and residents with their own boats can launch from public ramps throughout the area.

For information about dive charters and accommodations in the Lower Florida Keys, contact the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-872-3722 or 305-872-2411, or visit the chamber Web site or explore this Web site.

The official visitors Web site for the Florida Keys & Key West has established new information sections designed to provide information to protect the health and welfare of travelers to the island destination.

A new “Visitor Safety” section provides phone numbers and links to law enforcement, medical facilities and an exclusive, toll-free multi-lingual visitor assistance line. A special component provides details of how the Keys tourism industry interfaces with local emergency management officials in the event a hurricane threatens the island chain.

“We believe our Web site should not only let visitors know about the appeal of a Florida Keys vacation, but that it should be a source of information to assist if something unexpected happens,” said Harold Wheeler, director of the Keys tourism council. “These new pages provide important details travelers can access and download before they travel to our region.”

“It is refreshing to see a tourism council being so honest and proactive in providing pertinent information to keep their visitors safe,” said National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield.

Visit the new Keys safety pages at www.fla-keys.com.

Work on a new segment of the Florida Keys Overseas Highway has begun with transportation officials promising little impact for motorists using the existing section. Click here for more information.

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