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Tens of thousands flood Key West for Fantasy Fest Parade revelry during iconic carnival

Updated on: October 28, 2024 / 12:41 AM EDT / CBS/Florida Keys News Bureau

Early Halloween celebrations continue with Key West's Fantasy Fest Parade

Revelers accompany a float up Duval Street Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, during the Fantasy Fest Parade in Key West, Fla. Attracting tens of thousands of partiers, the nighttime parade was the highlight of the island city's Fantasy Fest costuming and masking festival that ends Sunday, Oct. 27. Themed "It's a 90s Neon Cosmic Carnival!," Fantasy Fest featured a 10-day roster of masquerades, costume contests and street parties. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY (Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO) Andy Newman

KEY WEST — Colorful space creatures, huge motorized floats, and marchers in glittering capes and headdresses entertained revelers during Saturday night's Fantasy Fest Parade, the highlight of Key West's 10-day costuming and masking festival that ends Sunday.

The parade featured several dozen floats and exotically costumed walking groups, proceeding through Key West's historic downtown before tens of thousands of spectators.

Some entries were inspired by the 2024 Fantasy Fest theme, "It's a 90s Neon Cosmic Carnival!," that illustrated everything from 1990s trends to intergalactic antics.

Among parade standouts were a neon and black-light replica railroad engine surrounded by vividly costumed marchers, an energetic troupe of Caribbean-style dancers, a group of prancing green-garbed "Martians," and "DJ Time Warp" whose supersized headdress was a stylized boombox.

Fantasy Fest's final events Sunday include a children's carnival and an afternoon dance party.

The 2025 festival, to be themed "Bedtime Stories & Magical Monsters," is set for Oct. 17-26.