Fantasy Fest is Key West’s equivalent to the New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. Fantasy Fest week kicks off with the crowning of the King & Queen on October 22nd. Five candidates compete to see who raises the most money for AIDS Help, our local AIDS/HIV support agency. The king candidate and queen candidate with the highest total are crowned.

Anne has lived in Key West off and on since 1990. She first started visiting in 1988 as a writer when she attended the Hemingway Days Festival and won the story telling contest two years in a row. It was only a matter of time before she and her family called Key West home! She quickly became involved many worthy causes on the island such as Wesley House and AIDS Help and Pat Green’s campaign for Fantasy Fest Queen. But with the occurrence of Hurricane Andrew, she felt it prudent to move herself and her young family to safer surroundings. As most that leave Key West, she visited regularly and eventually made the island her permanent home 3-1/2 years ago.

Anne is as talented onstage, behind the scenes and everything she does. She is an actress, a writer, a director, a producer, a songstress and founder of a not-for-profit theatre company known as Minerva Productions. Minerva was founded with the intention of giving women more opportunities in the arts as writers, directors, actors, designers and technicians. Its mentoring programs have paved the way for opportunities all over the country. It has long been Anne’s dream to take the message of Minerva and its mission statement to the big screen and with the opening of The Kids Are All Right on July 9th at Tropic Cinema that dream will came true.

Now Anne has a new stage production at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West running through October 17th. Cloud 9 is a play about sexual oppression and gender inequality by Caryl Churchill and features some of Key West’s finest actors. All proceeds of the nightly performances go to AIDS Help. For more information about Anne, her dedication to raising money for AIDS Help and her wonderful events, please visit her site www.anneforqueen.com

BLOG author,Ginger King, is a former reigning Queen of Fantasy Fest (2004). She continues to be deeply involved in raising money for AIDS Help and other charities in the community while working as a Broker Associate at Last Key Realty on Duval Street in Key West.