Sunset Celebration in Key West

The Pier at Mallory Square is the location of the Sunset Celebration, which is the main tourist attraction in Key West. Each night about two hours before sunset masses of people gather on the pier to watch the sun sink into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Sunset Celebration highlights:

• The gathering takes place on the pier at Mallory Square, behind the Custom House museum.
• The participants consist of arts and crafts exhibitors, street performers, food carts, psychics, and of course the thousands of visitors from around the world.
• James Audubon wrote glowingly of the glorious Key West sunsets while visiting in the early 1800s.
• Legend has it that Tennessee Williams initiated the ritual of applauding the sunset at Mallory Square, gin and tonic firmly in hand.
• The Sunset Celebration really took off in the late 1960s as groups of carefree hippies descended upon Key West in search of paradise. The way that the sunset ceremony got started is that all the hippies would go down to the pier high on LSD to watch the cloud formations at sunset.

For more information, check out our audio tour(opens in a new tab).