Next year’s Fantasy Fest theme is (drum roll, please): “All a Daze for a Holiday!”
Organizers announced the 2021 theme the night of Oct. 24 in Key West, where the usually larger-than-life parade was replaced this year by the live-streamed Smallest Parade in the Universe.
Streamed live from The Studios of Key West on FantasyFest.com, the tiny parade featured 22 miniature floats — only 18 inches tall — boasting creative interpretations of the 2020 Fantasy Fest theme, “Roaring 2020s and Future Fictions.” The floats “paraded” down a virtual Duval Street, with projections of them shown on the “street” to make the miniatures look larger than life.
The tiny floats are now being auctioned online at marc.betterworld.org through Oct. 31 to benefit the Monroe Association for Remarkable Citizens (MARC).
The nonprofit MARC organization serves adult clients in Monroe County who have developmental disabilities that include cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Prader-Willi Syndrome, and traumatic brain injury sustained prior to age 18. “MARC provides numerous services designed to ensure that each client receives training and support that enhances his or her individual abilities to understand daily community routines and learn social, self-care, vocational skills. Other services provide medical and therapeutic supervision and help to increase a client’s ability to develop friendships with non-disabled persons,” states its website.
The Smallest Parade in the Universe also wrapped up two months of the Community Wins Initiative, a collection of alternative fund-raising events designed to replace the donations lost with the cancellation of the traditional fundraising effort associated with the Fantasy Fest King and Queen campaign.
The initiative raised about $165,000 that will be divided equally among four local nonprofit organizations: Sister Season Fund, which provides financial assistance to workers in the tourism industry when their income is limited through no fault of their own; Samuel’s House, a family and women’s shelter for victims of domestic violence; Florida Keys Outreach Coalition, which helps solve and prevent homelessness in the Florida Keys; and A.H. Monroe, formerly AIDS Help, which focuses on providing accessible health care, affordable housing and HIV/AIDS services and case management.
Kathy Gilmore, left, and Pony Charvet host the Smallest Parade in the Universe that was live streamed from The Studios of Key West on Oct. 24 to replace the full-sized Fantasy Fest parade that was canceled due to the coronavirus. MANDY MILES/Keys Weekly 
Beth Moyes dressed as Amelia Earhart for the Oct 24 Smallest Parade in the Universe, where she turned the conveyor belt to move the miniature floats. MANDY MILES/Keys Weekly
