For more than 30 years, the annual Goombay Festival has celebrated Key West’s Bahamian heritage and takes place in the island’s Bahama Village neighborhood, which was settled in the early 1800s in part by Bahamians seeking a new island home.
Goombay was centered on Petronia Street, just off Duval Street in the heart of Bahama Village.
Highlights included the “Junkanoo Rush” on Oct. 18 and the traditional Junkanoo parade of costumed marchers the next day. Both featured the Bahamas’ renowned New Generation Cultural Group.
Attendees savored the flavors of Caribbean and ethnic dishes offered by vendors, explored a variety of island-influenced arts and crafts, and danced in the streets to live music by popular Bahamian, Floridian and local musicians and bands. The entertainment lineup included local “soul man” Robert Albury, soca singer Hebrew Edwards and the Caribbean Explosion Band presenting reggae and soca rhythms.
