Key West residents rally against Fantasy Fest nudity
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
There have been complaints for several years about the growing amount of nudity during Key West’s Fantasy Fest. But this year, those complaints are turning into action.
Two different residents’ groups have organized to build a grassroots campaign putting pressure on Key West City Commissioners and the Fantasy Fest producers to bring the hammer down on nudity and illegal public sexual activity. One of the citizen’s groups, Key West Fest Friends, held its first public meeting Monday, Nov. 10, to hear input on ideas for its campaign. The second group, led by former Key West City Commissioner Harry Bethel, will hold a public meeting on Monday, Nov. 17, at 6 pm in Old City Hall.
About 40 people attended Fest Friends’ first meeting. While lower extremity genitalia exposure on both men and women was condemned by several speakers, there was also dismay over the ebbing participation by local businesses and residents and a perceived lack of creativity in event themes, costumes and parade floats.
“We want a festival that represents us, something we can be proud of,” said resident Michael Blades.
In addition, the event has increasingly been advertised to nude cruise ship and lingerie companies, as well as sex websites, said Kate Miano, owner of the Gardens Hotel on Angela Street. As a result, Key West now has an entrenched reputation for ongoing no-holds-barred nudity.
“That creeps over into every event. Who are they [Fantasy Fest producers] selling us to and how are they selling us? They need to be held accountable,” Miano said.
The company that owns the Fantasy Fest name is the Monroe County Tourist Development Association (TDA). TDA subcontracts event marketing and production to The Market Share Company, a Key West-based production company that handles permitting, sponsorship sales, event planning and production and acts as the liaison to Key West officials. TDA and Market Share came under fire at the Fest Friends’ meeting. Harry Bethel, who attended the Fest Friends meeting, pointed out that the five-year contract TDA has with the city to produce Fantasy Fest expires on June 29, 2015.
“Now is the time to go out for bids. We need new ideas,” he said. “Nobody is saying do away with the Fest. That’s crazy.”
The organizers of Key West Fest Friends emphasized that they “love” Fantasy Fest and only want positive change. Joe Weed Clements, one of the organizers, said the group is not against partial nudity – particularly painted breasts on women – but full frontal nudity, even painted, on both men and women should be banned. And any permissible nudity should be confined to the Fantasy Fest party zone, which includes Duval Street and some of the adjacent side streets.
One suggestion was to require The Market Share Co. to hire private security to keep legally nude participants inside the Fantasy zone. Clements also suggested expanding nearby neighborhood watch groups to alert local police when nude participants wander into their area.
“If they see something really bad, make sure they know the channels to report it,” Clements said, referring to local watch groups.
“There needs to be a clear definition of this is the Fantasy zone. This is a neighborhood. Cover your ass up,” said Greg Daniels, a Fest Friends organizer.
Key West City Commissioner Jimmy Weekley also attended the Fest Friends meeting and urged the group to continue its efforts. There is strong support on Facebook to clamp down on the nudity, he said.
“It can be changed,” Weekley said, referring to the Fantasy Fest contract that is up for renewal in June. “We can change any aspect of the contract. We just need four votes to make the change.”
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I do agree with them about the lack of creativity and as long as they give me enough notice to cancel my rental and vacation somewhere else I’m ok with it. It’s your town. You will save me money I can spend a third of the amount somewhere else.
There is allot of people who enjoy all aspects of fantasy fest and changed there dates to kw Judy to go to fantasy fest and kw makes lots of money during f.f..to even think about banning it…..there was easy to many costumes this yr and the parade was pretty boring….u should ban ALL the creepy people that come and get in people’s faces or personal space to take photos just to post them our for themselves….
Be polite and ask people to take there photo our to be in the photo with them……
Pure nudity with out being painted is gross….. Just make sure your body parts r covered in paint our pasties or cloth….
Please don’t take all the fun away……
I used to be a regular at Fantasy Fest in the late 80s and early 90s. Came back in 2010 and was appalled at the difference in the event. I was looking forward to a repeat of the lavish costumes and spectating that I enjoyed when last I visited, and instead was subjected to what appeared to be a taping of way too many girls gone wild. The last thing I want to do on vacation is watch a parade of topless girls who seem to be competing against each other for photo ops for free. This past year I was there for a couple of days mid week and felt like I was on the edge of a swinger’s convention that was every bit as disgusting as Mardi Gras. I loved Fantasy Fest with all the creativity and the slight edge that formed the early years- somewhere along the line Key West crossed the line between sexy and playful and became sleazy and commercialized.
I’ve only been here for 2 years. Being that I get to travel a lot to many different countries and cities Key West is another new experience and good one at that for me. However, Fantasy Fest is out of control. Nobody wants to see 90 y/o grandma and grandpa walking down the street naked. All those young women who wanna strip, take that to a strip club, there are plenty in key west. This FF was completely backwards. It was supposed to be Anime…. Not Hentai. One image I can’t get away from is some 6.5 fatass harry sasquache wearing nothing but steel toed boots and tighty whities twerking in the street.. Literally. Key West is a small coral rock, so it’s hard to get kids away from FF that are living near the action. If this is the kind of message that Key West likes to deliver to their youth, then by all means keep it up. I’m not saying kids can’t differentiate right from wrong, but there are those that have been born and raised here and all they know is that this place is notorius for nudity and the extremely odd and when they move to a more normal society at some point in their life, it’s going to be a culture shock. It is true that FF is now published on sex sights, it’s also hosted of Ron Jeremy (pornstar) as well as other pornstars as we have seen this year all over billboards. Well Key West, what’s your thoughts. This place used to be a beautiful island and is now a concrete jungle that attracts perverts from all over the world who only care about T and A. In fact many have dubbed this place the land of the weird and even go as far as to say “anything goes in Key West.” there’s nothing wrong with being unique as a community but there needs to be civil boundaries. These people don’t stip and go butt naked on the mainland, they come down here to do it nuff said. I can only imagine how many unwanted sexual assaults get unreported and happen during the week of FF, especially with the amount of alcohol flowing on the streets. I don’t have a problem with festivity, drinking or partying and having a street bash and a good time, but Fantasy Fest was never originally “Sexual Fantasy Fest”, but that is what it has become, and that is what Key West has allowed to happen. Take control of your environment because you are the embassador of your county and state.
Anything that is illegal within the Fantasy zone especially is a Federal crime. This would mean public nudity/lewd conduct is a Federal crime, enforced straight from Washington, DC, and investigated by the FBI.
To extinguish public nudity at Fantasy Fest, you really may as well just have the FBI and even the U.S. Department of Homeland Security patrolling Fantasy Fest, arresting all the nudes, and warning everyone that indecent exposure is a Federal crime, not a municipal crime.