Battle of the Bars

Another Adventure first this last Sunday - Battle of the Bars - a battle of the local bars in a competition that has a team of 7 running through an obstacle course while doing bar stuff. It is 2 teams competing against each other until only 1 team remains. It is an ALL day event that is all about the locals coming together for a great time!

What is the bar obstacle course you ask....

• First one of the team members makes margaritas, walk through cones and serve them to the team to drink them.
• Then another team member gathers up the trash in the bar and runs down to the other end of the bar area to sort out the trash, recycle and regular trash (all in the interest of being green).
• Once the trash is sorted that team member rolls a beer keg to the middle of the area.
• A different team member then taps the keg.
• Once the keg is tapped a different team member fills 7 glasses of beer with no more than a 1 inch head of beer foam.
• Then a different team member takes the filled glasses, walks a balance beam and serves to the team.
• Once all of the teams have drank the beer they are done.

The above picture shows the list of teams from the back of the t-shirt I bought. It lists 36 of the 40 bars that were involved. Tom has the chance to compete on The Bottle Cappers team but declined. The Bottle Cap Lounge is our latest 'find' of a great bar to hang out in.

As with most of the events in KW all of the proceeds go to charity. It seems that there is not a weekend that goes by where we are not at some fund raising event. I think it must be do to no state taxes in FL. The non-profit here have a hard time getting funds and need public donations. For this event the promotions went to Boys & Girls club of KW and the Literacy Foundation.

A bar can win in more than one way.

• The bar that wins the obstacle course - won by the Eaw ar Rowdies I think
  
• The bar that wins the most money
  
• The bar that has the best costume.

I wish I could tell you who won each of these areas but I can't. We didn't make it to the end. After 6 hours (got there at noon & left at 6pm) only Round 3 had finished with 2 more to go and we had more than our share of beer and sun. Time is not an issue here so the event started an hour late and not only the teams but the referees kept taking breaks to have a cocktail so it takes longer than you would expect, Welcome to the KW time.
The results should be out in Thurs local paper.

If you would like to share in the fun I have included a link to a YouTube show of pictures. There are also a number of other videos out on YouTube of the various teams competing. Just do a search of 2008 Key West Bar Wars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gXXJsg7IY&feature=related
I do have to warn you that the pictures and videos are not edited so it may not be for anyone who is easily offended. Remember that they don't call this place Key Weird for nothing, just another day in paradise with the locals!

It was a great day of sun, fun, food and beer as we sat at the top bar of Schooners and watched it all go on.