KEY WEST — Summer is about over, except for one last getaway. Labor Day holiday weekend.
Need a distinctly Floridian thing to do for that August 29-September 1 weekend? Retracing Jimmy Buffett’s steps in Key West where the late troubadour began his musical career nearly 55 years ago to a soundtrack of his music could be the last blast of summer fun before fall studies and the height of hurricane season take over.
Key West hosts its second annual Buffett-themed “Just a Few Friends: Key West Favorite Son Celebration” with a four-day schedule of events, many of them free. The idea: “remembrance with revelry,” organizers say. The son of a son of a sailor died two years ago on September 1, 2023, after battling Merkel Cell Skin Cancer for four years.
Is a visit to the Florida Keys on your agenda to take visitors this Labor Day 2025 holiday weekend? The 2nd Annual Just a Few Friends: Key West Favorite Son Celebration festival on Aug. 29-Sept. 1 pays tribute to Jimmy Buffett on the island where his career got started in the early-1970s. (Matias Ocner Miami Herald)
Highlights include a walking tour that takes in the streets and bars and personas Buffett immortalized in his songs; a memorial parade down Duval Street featuring Buffett’s music and a party in Truman Park near the water. That party features some musicians, vocalists and songwriters playing songs you — and they — know by heart. They would be familiar with this material. Some of these people, including vocalist Nadirah Shakoor, former 1970s Coral Reefer guitarist Roger Bartlett, and composer Will Kimbrough, who co-wrote Buffett’s posthumously released “Bubbles Up,” toured with Buffett.
“This is about more than music,” co-organizer Paul Menta said in a statement. “We honor Jimmy’s memory by immersing people in the island he loved — the people, the history, the sunsets, the flavors. It’s a celebration of a way of life.”
Buffett’s biggest fans may want to take everything in at one of nearly 50 events spread over the four days. There’s a Cruisin’ Tiki Sunset & Music Cruise and Mimosa-Ville Brunch: A Buffett Buffet. There’s a Coconut Telegraph Trolley Tour. A Pool Party at The Marker and a Pencil Thin Mustache Contest at the Chart Room. Sunset & Bubbles: Songs & Stories with Will Kimbrough at Sunset Pier’s big stage. But if you can’t get away for all four days, here are a few events to consider.
- Second Line Memorial Walking Parade. When: 5 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, August 31. Free. This procession celebrates the life and times of Buffett in the Keys, the era when he cut his first batch of core Key West albums including “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean,” “Living and Dying in ¾ Time,” “A1A,” “Havana Daydreaming” and “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” For that LP, Buffett finished writing his biggest hit, “Margaritaville,” when he was stuck on the Seven Mile Bridge west of Marathon waiting for a fender bender to clear in 1976, he told the Miami Herald in April 2023 when his sole Billboard Top 10 song was entered into the 2023 National Recordings Registry of the Library of Congress. He honed his music for these albums at Key West places that no longer exist like Howie’s Bar and some that still do, like the Chart Room. The procession steps off from the lower 100 block of Duval Street, parades five blocks down Duval, turns onto Southard Street for another five blocks, and ends at Truman Waterfront Park for a casual celebration. Expect live music, group singalongs, and island-style outfits. You’re encouraged to dress up in tropical attire and take part.
- Party in the Park: Nadirah Shakoor & Friends Tribute to Bubba. When: 6 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31. Free/badge perks. This is where the parade leads you to at Truman Waterfront Park. Rotating live music performances by a lineup including Shakoor, Howard Livingston and the Mile Marker 24 Band, and other local musicians. Bubba, by the way, was a term of endearment Buffett’s bandmates and friends used around him.
- Just a Few Friends Walking Tour. When: Noon-2:30 p.m. Friday, August 29; 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, August 30; 10 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Monday, September 1. Cost: $45 each day. You will meet up outside Shrimp Boat Sound, Buffett’s private recording studio since 1988’s “Hot Water” album through his last one, “Equal Strain on All Parts” in 2023. Country superstar George Strait also recorded a string of his albums at Shrimp Boat. The recording studio was once a shrimp storage cooler (hence its name) and sits in the Key West Historic Seaport near the shrimp docks between Schooner Wharf Bar and Conch Republic Seafood Company. You’re welcome to leave a memento or sticker on the white wall outside the studio as you take off on the 90-minute guided walking tour through some of the Key West places frequented by the Keys’ favorite son over his history on the island. We bet you’ll see the Chart Room or the supermarket Fausto’s on Fleming Street where Buffett popped in for chocolate milk in the lyric of his 1976 “Havana Daydreaming” tune, “My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink and I Don’t Love Jesus.” Probably Caroline Street where that woman was seen goin’ crazy in the song of that name on the same album. You’ll almost certainly see Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant on Duval Street at some point — either on this tour or along the parade route. Buffett tried out new songs on the joint’s small stage. Capt. Tony’s Saloon on Greene Street should figure, too. Buffett sang about stopping in here on the title song of his 1985 album, “Last Mango in Paris.
