Key West Mayor Teri Johnston joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
Fantasy Fest has come to an end.
Mike Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM pointed out, “The police department for city of Key West, Sean Brandenburg and his entire team are to be highly commended for keeping public order.”
Johnston said, “It seemed from my vantage point that it was very well run. We had a lot of very respectful people in town. I took part in the coronation of the Fantasy Fest King and Queen, the Headdress Ball. I got to see a lot of fantasy Fest and those events were very well run. If you were looking for a crowd, we certainly had it at Fantasy Fest. Lots of very creatively costumed people.”
There were about 60,000 people at the big Fantasy Fest parade on Saturday night.
Johnston said, “Yep, a big crowd. I think as with any 43-year-old event, it needs to be tweaked based on our situation. I also have a great respect for our citizens because being a tourist destination, our residents really do endure a lot. I think a lot of them partake in the fun, but I think any event has to be respectful to the people that live here in Key West. I love the fact that we’re tweaking this, we’re moving to a more creatively costumed event.”
Fantasy Fest does bring in almost $30 million annually.
Johnston said, “This coming week Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez and our Representative Jim Mooney and we are going to present our legislative priorities. I’m so proud to say that this year for the city of Key West, we have a long list and they’re very organized. Al Childress, our city manager and Todd Stoughtonstone, our assistant city manager, have been working with every single department as well as the City Commission. We have an incredible list of asks this year to follow up on. The Key West High School had their homecoming this weekend. That was Saturday night. So I hope everything went well there.”
The next city commission meeting will be November 9.
Johnston said, “We have the world offshore racing coming in for November 5 through the 12th and that’s going to bring in a great number of people. So get ready for that next event.”
For the agenda for November 9, click here: http://keywest.legistar.com/DepartmentDetail.aspx?ID=9423&GUID=42D459A4-73BF-4962-8BAF-A237E0477713