Key West - Pirates in Paradise Festival
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SET YER COURSE FOR 2008!
Pirates in Paradise Festival will be tentatively invading Key West from Nov. 29 through Dec. 7, 2008!
The Fort Taylor Pirate Fest is scheduled for Dec. 5 - 7, 2008
4 Days of Pure Piratical Escapades Celebrating Key West's Rich & Colorful Maritime Heritage
Raise Yer Flag, Grab Yer Mate and Join Us in Celebrating the Golden Age of Sail
& Seafaring Adventure!
Avast, me Hearties! It's time to chart yer course for the Isle of Bones...Cayo Hueso as Key West and the Conch Republic welcome the 8th Annual Pirates in Paradise Festival. Pack up yer cutlass, don yer garb, grab yer mate and join us for a weekend of mischief and merrymaking that features a host of swashbuckling events for buccaneers and wenches of all ages!
Top-name quality entertainment and historic re-enactors, improvisational actors, and combative stunt men from around the country (including Cascabel, whose portrait by Don Maitz is the artwork for this year's Festival program cover) are set to invade the island and join Key West's own pirate crew, the Bone Island Buccaneers for four days of pure piratical escapades. As you stroll the streets of Old Town's colorful seaport taverns and pirate pubs such as Pat Croce's Rum Barrell at Pirate Soul or visit Fort Zachary Taylor's Pirate Fest and Village Market, don't be surprised if you run into the likes of Anne Bonny, Bawdy Be, Braze, Cascabel, Sir Henry Morgan, The Pyrates of the Coast and other nefarious Brethren of the Coast.
Each day the public can join Captain Finbar and his scurvy crew of pirates aboard the Schooner WOLF for Tall Ship Sails and Pirate Attacks. Docked at the Historic Seaport, the WOLF, Flagship of the Conch Republic will be offering afternoon and sunset sails. The Schooner Liberty will also be offering sails during the Pirate Fest with His Majesty's Redcoats, and the Jolly Rover and Island Rover will also be taking passengers on pirate sails.
Once again Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park & Beach will be the location for the Pirate Fest, Village Thieves' Market and Pirate Pub. The Fort's Pirate Fest which is set inside the historic fort, with its authentic period encampments, historic re-enactors and colorful pirates, lets you have the chance to live a pirate's life! Pirates will be repelling invaders along the ramparts while vendors sell wares in the makeshift town. Occasional fights are bound to break out as braggarts solve their disagreements with swords and daggers in true piratical style; and various pirate entertainers add to the festive nature that fills the township. The historic reenactment of the Pyrate Tryal of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, based on the original transcripts of the trial, as found in Tamara Eastman's book, will be held on Saturday morning inside the fort at 11 a.m.
One of the highlights of this year's festival will be the Pirate Tavern in the fort itself, which will be open all day/evening on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 30 through Dec. 2. There, you'll hear tall tales and spirited chanteys while downing a pounder of ale or some sweet honey mead. It'll seem so real to you that you'll be sure you've been transported back some 350 years to the time when pirates ruled the Caribbean.
On Friday, November 30, the community of Key West will once again gather to celebrate the Official End of America's Hurricane Season Party at the USS MOHAWK CGC (WPG-78) Memorial Museum's Truaman Annex Pier. Festivities begin with the Walk the Plank National Championships aboard the Schooner WOLF and will be followed with a special ceremony featuring NOAA's weather forecaster Matt Strahan and his weather crew who will ceremonially burn the Hurricane Flags, signifying the end of this year's Hurricane Season. The party continues with the Conch Republic Shipwreck Pirate's Ball which features the big band sounds of Mike Emerson and the Southernmost Brass Band, with special guest, Queen of Swing Norma Miller.
For those aspiring writers and artists wishing to get their inspiration from the sea, the Festival's annual Artists', Historians' and Authors' Sail and the Literature & the Sea Caribbean Pirate's Buffet at El Meson de Pepe on Mallory Square will feature participating artists, historians and literary luminaries include Janny Wurts, Don Maitz, Carol Shaughnessy, Cynthia Zeuli and "Queen of Swing" Norma Miller (who will be celebrating her 88th B-day during the festival.)
Looking for lodging accommodations and reservations for our nautical excursions? We can help. Just give us a call at 305-296-9694.
The Pirates in Paradise Festival has its many swashbuckling sponsors to thank, including Communicreations.com, Bob Weber's Bicycling Through History, Pirate’s Choice Rum, PEPSI Refreshment Services, Pat Croce's Rum Barrel and Pirate Soul, El Meson de Pepe, Caribbean Chocolates, Cypress House, Days Inn Key West, Courtyard by Marriott, Westwinds Inn, Fairvilla Megastore, VFW, Sunlion Jewelry, Sebago Watersports, the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, Fairvilla Mega Store, Waterfront Market, Double Tree Grand Key, What a Dish Catering, Island 107 FM, The Event Network, Fort Zachary Historic State Park.Park and the Florida Park Service.
To all our volunteers, pirate entertainers and crew...THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS A TRUE PIRATE GATHERING! A special thanks to our volunteer event organizers who include Park Specialist Harry Smid (General of the Conch Republic Army)and his crew at Fort Taylor Historic State Park ad Spike, Beau, Greek, Portside Tom and the rest of the Bone Island Buccaneers for organizing the Fort Taylor Pirate Fest, Village Market & Pub; Robb 'Hurricane' Zerr and Michelle ‘Diosa’ Murillo of CommuniCreations.com for website management and marketing; WISS Island 107 FM for getting the word out; and Captain Finbar and the scurvy crew of the Schooner Wolf for providing adventure on the high seas!
We especially thank our pirate performers and crews who will be providing swashbuckling entertainment, including The Pyrates of the Coast, Cascabel, Braze, Bawdy Be, Captain Crudbeard, the Callahan Crewe and Lady Barbara and Liberte' Sparrow.
We have plenty of fun-filled piratical activities lined up...so mark your calendars for Nov. 29 through Dec. 2 and plan to set sail for Key West and the 2007 Pirates in Paradise Festival!
-- Julie McEnroe, The Event Network and Festival Volunteer
During the reenactment, the fortress flies the King's Colours. The mission of the Royal Marines is to prevent pyrates from sailing thru the harbor and from landing upon the island to seek provisions. As one might expect, the pyrates ignore the presence of the King's Royal Marines and proceed to land upon the island, establish a careening camp and be so bold as to attack Fort Taylor! What group is behind this skullduggery? None other than the most feared pyrate crewe of the Florida Keys, the Bone Island Buccaneers. Get a taste of buccaneer life, Bone Island style, 
Inside Fort Taylor visitors will see a "Thieves Market" displaying merchandise from the era along food and drink, pyratical encampments demonstrating pyratical life aboard ship and on land, and, an authentic pyrate's pub. Visitors are also treated to cannon demonstrations and can try their hands at various pyratical games of the era. Kids can mount their own Treasure Hunt. Pyrate minstrels singing sea shanties abound. And, all pay close attention to the historically accurate tryal of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two of the most notorious female pyrates to ever sail the Spanish Main.