Sushi (R), portrayed by female impersonator Gary Marion, toasts New Year’s Eve revelers early Sunday, January 1, 2017 after being lowered to Duval Street in a super-sized red high-heel shoe in Key West, Florida.
The Red Shoe Drop is a Key West New Year’s Eve tradition and is one of four Florida Keys warm-weather takeoffs on New York City’s Times Square ball drop marking the arrival of the new year. / AFP / Florida Keys News Bureau / Douglas CURRAN AND Rob O’Neal (Photo credit should read DOUGLAS CURRAN,ROB O’NEAL/AFP via Getty Images)
There are going to be plenty of things dropping for New Year's Eve in Key West, Florida.
The Sunshine State's hedonistic, subtropical island has six different “drops” Tuesday evening modeled after New York City's famous ball drop.
Among them is Gary Marion, known as the drag queen Sushi, who will be lowered in a huge facsimile of a woman’s high heel at a bar on Duval Street.
Outside Sloppy Joe’s Bar, famous for being a hangout of writer Ernest Hemingway, thousands of revelers are expected to watch the drop of a gigantic man-made conch shell, the symbol of the Florida Keys.
Celebrants can see a huge replica of a Key lime wedge splashing down into a larger-than-life margarita glass at a harbor-side resort.
There also will be a “landing” of a flight attendant in a section of a replica aircraft at First Flight Island Restaurant & Brewery, billed as the birthplace of Pan American World Airways.
Also on the bill are a faux “tuna drop” and a “pirate wench” who will be lowered from the top of a tall ship's mast.
