Fans of Ernest Hemingway’s literary greatness and vigorous life, including scores of bearded Hemingway look-alikes, converged on Key West July 20 to 25 for Hemingway Days 2021.
The annual celebration salutes the Nobel Prize-winning author’s writing achievements, sporting pursuits and enjoyment of the island’s lifestyle.
The festival’s highlight is the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, 201 Duval St., which raises money for scholarships.
The festival also features literary events, readings, a short story contest sponsored by Lorian Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter, and museum exhibits.
Hilarity ensued on Saturday, July 24, when the look-alikes spearheaded the annual mock “Running of the Bulls” — a wacky takeoff on the real thing in Pamplona, Spain — that featured the bearded brethren pushing fake bulls on wheels around Duval Street.
The week also included the Key West Marlin Tournament, a 5K and a paddleboard race to salute Hemingway’s sporting lifestyle.
Hemingway lived in Key West from 1931 until late 1939, writing classics including “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not” in a small writing studio behind his Whitehead Street home that is now the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum.
