Some 500 loyal subjects and a cadre of past Fantasy Fest royals celebrated at the Coffee Butler Amphitheater on Oct. 21 as Carlos Home and Fran Decker were crowned the new king and queen of Fantasy Fest. The 2022 royal court inauguration was completed with Vicky Shields and DJ Sanaris installed as duchess and duke.
Fantasy Fest royal courts, rather than gaining their crowns via coup, earn them through heroic fundraising efforts, with imaginative eight-week campaigns, culminating in a grand coronation to kick off Key West’s annual Fantasy Fest. The two who raise the most dollars win the queen and king titles; runners-up serve as duke and duchess. Together, this year’s candidates raised $305,637.
Since the competition’s inception more than 30 years ago, 64 queen and king pairings have been crowned, along with a plethora of dukes and duchesses, and in those years, more than $5 million has been raised, traditionally for the benefit of AH Monroe Inc., formerly AIDS Help.
This year, AH Monroe executive director Scott Pridgen and Fantasy Fest board chair Steve Robbins announced that the time has come to pass the torch to a new beneficiary of the funds raised. The Florida Keys SPCA has been selected as the new campaign organizers and beneficiaries.
“On behalf of all of us at the Florida Keys SPCA — the humans and the animals — I want to offer our profound thanks for passing the mantle of the royal campaign over to us,” FKSPCA board president Jeffrey Johnson said from the stage. “We are honored and humbled by this opportunity, and we thank AH Monroe for building a program of such epic proportions and for giving so much to the community for so many years. Thank you for your support; we will strive to make you proud.”
The evening’s revelry included a sit-down dinner and two-hour stage show hosted by Bria Ansara and Erin McKenna, which included a performance of “So Long, Farewell,” from the musical “The Sound of Music,” in a comic sendup to the previous king and queen, Ryan Acker and Karen Frank-Noll, who’d held their titles for an unprecedented three years due to the pandemic.
Fantasy Fest 2022 is presented in part by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. More information is at fantasyfest.com.
