Tu-tu Tuesday

Fantasy Fest continues! The revelry here is pretty much non-stop. There are events and parties every night, most involve costumes and lots of drinking. The costumes can be fun, but we are only moderate drinkers, and we are not quite as young as we used to be. none the less we do our best to get in the swing of things. Some of the events in the last several days have been: Tu-tu Tuesday, Plaid Night, Red Night, Hippie Night, Fetish night, Rubber night and many more. We made no attempt to attend them all. Some of the events are so big they spill in to the streets to the extent that the police barricade off entire blocks. The crowds can be so thick that you literally cannot get through. Lots of folks in either elaborate or scanty costumes constantly are posing for viewers or photographers. We were a little prepared with some costumes and improvised what we could to suit the occasion. We were even asked to pose for the occasional tourist even though on the Key West outrageousness scale, we could have passed for Amish.

Steve and his gals, Tu-tu Tuesday

On Tuesday, our innkeeper at Marreros supplied everyone with tutu's so we could properly represent the house and participate in the Tu-tu Parade which wended through town stopping along the way for periodic refreshment. Marreros sponsors a happy hour on their porch every day at five and everyone was out in their tu-tu best, harassing innocent passers by. 

Body paint on the streets

Another tradition at fantasy fest is body painting. Lots of shops along Duvall, the main street, offer body painting. Shops that normally sell t-shirts, jewelry stores, restaurants, and convenience stores all set up booths along the street with resident artists to do body painting. The law says all the body painting is to be done out of public view. The law is almost universally ignored and in some cases blatantly so. If you want your face done it will be fifty dollars or so. A whole body job can go into the hundreds. You see lots of painted people on the streets at night. In some cases that is all they are wearing.

Ready for the Plaid Party

Tonight, Thursday, is Toga Night at Sloppy Joe's. We are somewhat prepared, though the local costume shops have outfits that cost into the thousands of dollars. There are parades Friday and Saturday and then things wind down and we will again hit the road. I will do one more Fantasy Fest blog before we leave Key West.