Images of Fantasy Fest – Key West Florida, taken in October 2016.

I traveled to the Florida Keys with a specific set of objectives in mind; visit the three National Parks in the area, spend some time in the town of Key West and enjoy the mild weather and the atmosphere of the keys in general. What I didn’t expect when I booked my trip was that I would be here for the beginning of the infamous Fantasy Fest; a weeklong erotic celebration that culminates on Halloween with the party of all parties. This is Mardi Gras surrounded by emerald waters, sans the beads!

I was leaving for Hilton Head mid-week so my only chance to attend the event would be during its first few tamer days but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see it in person and to be able to say that I went to Fantasy Fest. I could also rationalize the trip to the fest by approaching it as a photographic safari, after all this can be considered wildlife; a different kind than I normally shoot so therefore it’s also a way to grow my skills as a photographer…yeah, that’s the ticket! Now let’s get something straight, don’t tell my sisters about this because they would like nothing more than to get me in trouble by running to my parents with wild stories of me swimming in the debauchery of some alcohol drenched street party replete with painted and topless women. It’s not that they would be wrong, it just bugs me that they so enjoy getting me in trouble!

So I’m not going to kid myself, I realize that most people will have skipped reading all of this and plunged directly into the images; especially my friends in Houston and Atlanta…you know who you are…but I still feel it necessary to characterize my experience and provide a few caveats. Again I was at the fest early in the week so I can only imagine that things got more interesting the following weekend. Not that it wasn’t interesting; it definitely was, after all this isn’t the kind of crowd you see on an average Monday in most average American cities. There was some nudity, it was an older crowd and it was not always pretty, however, it was fun and a people watchers dream. I even ran into the devil himself…here’s to hoping that it’s the last time we cross paths!