What is this about?

[Jib]

"Scratches head"

http://www.piratesinparadise.com/

[michaelsbagley]

This is old news... I think there is a topic in this section about this...

Short recap:

A) pirates in paradise was in Key West

B ) Fort Taylor Pirate festival is in key west

C) they ran concurrently (and more or less cooperatively)

D) pirates in paradise is no more(for now?), Fort Taylor pirate Fest will continue

[Mission]

Yeah, what Michael said. I'm pretty sure the Fort Taylor Pirate Invasion was split out of Pirates in Paradise in 2010. The two events ran separately for two years. Then Pirates in Paradise folded up shop after 2011, It seems to me that they were talking about restarting it in a year or a couple further up the coast in Florida. But the Fort Taylor Pirate Invasion is still alive and kicking. I believe last year was one of the best attended years by the public since the pirate events started happening in the fort in 2005. I know it was the best attended one by reenactors.

http://www.forttaylorpyrates.com/

[Jib]

I'm out of the loop. I haven't been able to attend Pirates in Paradise since 2005. I knew that Pirates in Paradise split into two individual festivals and ran concurrently (but never knew why?). I knew that the Fort Taylor Pirate invasion remained at the fort and that PiP appeared to take a location closer to downtown Key West. Did I hear of shuttle that ran between the two events? I had no idea that 2011 was the last year for Pirates in Paradise!!! I look at all the photos posted on the pub forum and just imagined that most of those featured the Fort Taylor Pirate Invasion simply because the member enjoyed the fort events more than the PiP events (example: Missions wonderful photographs).

Any clue why this happened? It seems a lot of pirate events are folding up.

[Mission]

Well... it's one of those things that seems to generate upset when you talk about the specifics so most people don't.

In 2010 some of the original PiP organizers wanted to bring the event back to its roots (when it was a town-based event), so they decided to split it off and hold events outside the fort as separate from the Fort Taylor. (These events had been going on concurrently with Fort Taylor in the previous years.) Then they put together a more elaborate event in 2011 with carnival rides, pirate vendors, pirate-oriented kid's games and a stage for music and pirate contests in the area to the north of the Marine Sanctuary (sort of near the Fort Taylor entrance gate - I don't recall the exact name of this, but there's a neat concrete dock that runs along the sea side there. It may be the US Coast Guard dock or something like that.) You can see some photos of their setup in the first two chapters of my 2011 Surgeon's Journal. You can see a complete list of the events in the thread 2011 Pirates in Paradise Festival thread.

As for why they decided not to do it in 2012, my understanding was that the attendance numbers for PiP weren't what the organizers wanted after they spent all that time and effort on the event. So they elected to cancel it. At the time Rob Zerr mentioned the possibility of restarting it later, possibly further north on the Florida Coast... I believe that was somewhere on the event's Facebook page. It's too bad, really. I liked being able to do both of them, attending PiP town events early in the week and hanging in the fort during the weekend.

Oh, and I don't believe the bus thing ever got worked out properly. There was some discussion of it happening on the forum as I recall. People still went back and forth between the events though.

BTW, Mission steals a lot of his photographs from other people. The Key West event always has the most 'borrowed' photos which is why the Journals wind up being so long.

[Jib]

Keep stealing those photos Mission! I might not be able to see them if you don't!

[Captain Jim]

Hey, we're still pyrates and it's still in paradise, we just can't use them words without stickin' a bunch more in between. Copyright thing. Still and all it is sad to lose the in-town stuff even though there is more than enough to do in the Fort itself. Can't say I'm going to miss the carnival, though. Of course there is absolutely no reason not to pick up that stuff ourselves except that it's really hard work and our lovely and talented organizers are overworked and underpaid as it is.

[Jib]

Is the name copy righted?

[michaelsbagley]

I'm uncertain if there is a copywrite or a trademark in place... but while we portray pirates, i dont think it would be in anyones best interest to commit a "real" act of piracy and steal the name. It's best for the two formerly close events to drift apart and hope that maybe someday the meet again.

[D B Couper]

Last year it was wall to wall Pirates.

https://picasaweb.google.com/112277086501011510264/FTPIFavorites#5872990226009122674

[Mission]

Last year it was wall-tent to wall-tent pirates. :)

I have heard that the name "Pirates in Paradise" is copyrighted and when the events split, they named the fort event Fort Taylor Pirate Invasion. Like most such things, what it's called is mostly irrelevant once you're there, though. It's pretty much the same event with many of the same people as it was for me in 2007.