Bring some popcorn for the Key West City Commission meeting on Thursday, Oct. 12. It’s time again for the city’s elected officials to discuss, debate and define nudity as it relates to Fantasy Fest.
Specifically, officials will decide whether to re-establish, for the Friday and Saturday of Fantasy Fest, a “Fantasy Zone,” where females can be topless as long as their breasts are painted.
But pay attention, as this year’s Fantasy Zone decision is currently scheduled as the last agenda item for the morning session of the split-shift commission meeting, which starts at 9 a.m., adjourns around lunchtime and then reconvenes to finish the agenda at 5 p.m.
The zone for decades included Duval Street, usually from the Gulf of Mexico to Truman Avenue and the included side streets that connect Duval with Simonton and Whitehead. It was marked with barricades and signs reminding revelers to cover up when rejoining society and venturing back to hotels, grocery stores and residential neighborhoods.
But when the commission last year gave festival producers a three-year contract to run Fantasy Fest, there was no provision for a Fantasy Zone.
That poses a problem, according to City Attorney Ron Ramsingh.
“If that geographical boundary is not spelled out … the city stands to be exposed if someone were to be arrested for nudity for painted breasts — especially in an area that has historically been considered the Fantasy Zone,” Ramsingh writes in a summary of the Oct. 12 agenda item. “Additionally, you will recall that at that July 2022 meeting, Police Chief Sean Brandenburg, Code Compliance Director Jim Young and Fire Marshal Jason Barroso all urged you to keep the zone due to enforcement issues.”
Ramsingh then clarifies the city’s existing nudity prohibitions and the narrow exemption given to painted breasts within the Fantasy Zone.
“To be clear, nudity in any form is not permitted anywhere in the city at any time, no matter the time of the year. … Genitals, the pubic area and buttocks cannot be exposed regardless if they are painted or not. The only consideration that is given is regarding female breasts in the ‘Fantasy Zone.’ Specifically … body painting will be considered an exception to clothing in this ordinance, only within the Fantasy Zone … and only for certain days of Fantasy Fest. Therefore, under no circumstances can a female be outside of that zone with painted breasts if her breasts are not covered from the top of her nipple down, with an opaque covering (clothes). A pastie in that circumstance that only covers the areola and nipple would not qualify as an exemption to the nudity rule if she were outside of the zone,” Ramsingh writes.
So yeah, buckle up — and keep your genitalia covered at all times, everywhere.
The day’s agenda also includes plenty of less titillating city business. In addition to the Fantasy Zone, the morning session will include, among other things:
- The mayor’s proposals to appoint Thaddeus Cohen and Robert Cintron to the Key West Housing Authority Board.
- Special event permits.
- A funding request of $900,000 from the Monroe County Land Authority for The Lofts workforce housing development at Truman Waterfront.
The evening session, which starts at 5 p.m. includes, among other things:
- Potential changes to the membership requirements for various city advisory boards whose members are appointed by the mayor and commissioners.
Stay tuned to keysweekly.com for a full report from the commission meeting, which takes place after the paper’s print deadline. The full agenda is available at cityofkeywest-fl.gov.
