Key West Florida Weekly

5,000 Parrot Heads expected for annual meeting





Parrot Heads “Meeting of the Minds” is Nov. 2-6.

Parrot Heads “Meeting of the Minds” is Nov. 2-6.

Call it atonement for a 100 years of heavy drinking, but one thing’s for sure: Key West is a very charitable town. Our little island boasts a staggering amount of nonprofits dedicated to causes both popular and personal. We’ve got all the classics — Red Cross galas, breast cancer benefits, Alzheimer’s fun runs, and “yappy hour” SPCA fundraisers.

But we’re also a town that protects our own when they’re down and out, with weekends dedicated to raising money for bartenders with broken arms, school teachers in need of a vacation, yoga teachers with a baby in the hospital, and bereft Chihuahua owners trying to scramble together enough cash to pay for a teeny tiny wheelchair. In a community whose official motto is “One Human Family,” it’s understood that two things will always remain true for locals. First, you’re going to have at least five Facebook invites a week for various money-raising events. And secondly, if you’re down on your luck due to just about anything, there’s probably a charity in Key West to help with it.

Of course, because it’s Key West, the people and methods put to doing the actual fundraising are more often than not exceptionally weird. There are island-wide scavenger hunts, paddleboard access backcountry mangrove parties, and even an elaborate “American Idol”-styled multi-week singing competition held at the local drag bar.

But there’s one group in particular whose reputation for competitive fundraising, as well as a true Key West-worthy dedication to having a great time, precedes them — the Parrot Heads. If you’re scratching your head wondering why avian enthusiasts are so philanthropic, take note: Parrot Heads are fans of Jimmy Buffett, a musician best known for his Key West-steeped brand of folksy confessional “gulf and western” Caribbean surf-rock music, whose lyrics conjure images of a life spent eating cheeseburgers in paradise. The official Parrot Head canon quotes Buffett himself explaining the origin of his fan club’s name:

Timothy B. Schmit was in the band, and we were playing a venue outside of Cincinnati called King’s Island. People had already started wearing Hawaiian shirts to our shows, but we looked out at this Cincinnati crowd, and they were glaringly brilliant to the point where it got our attention immediately. I said, “Look at that!” Then Schmidt says to me, “They look like deadheads in tropical suits. They’re like PARROT HEADS,” he yelled to me in the middle of a song. So, I immediately took the term and threw it over the microphone — people (have) identified themselves with the term from the get- go.” Like Deadheads, Parrot Heads are famous for their willingness to follow their leader from concert to concert, setting up elaborate tropical tailgating parties in the parking lots of whichever venue Buffett is playing that night. That a group best known for unloading dump trucks of sand outside concert arenas to create a beach in the middle of, say, Mobile, Ala., are some of the most prolific fundraisers to ever grace the beer-soaked shores of Key West may come as a shock to some.

Outside the Parrot Head community, the group has acquired a wild, party-centric reputation, one that assumes they are simply a colorful bunch of working-for-the-weekend types who live vicariously through Buffett’s Caribbeanstyled songs. Those songs detail a life spent sailing, drinking margaritas, and generally enjoying the kind of relaxed, beach-based life usually reserved for actors in Corona commercials. Parrot Heads, to hear many people outside the community tell it, are dissatisfied people trapped in fluorescent-lighted cubicle office jobs, who use Buffett’s music as a kind of escapism from the daily grind of their otherwise deeply un-tropical lives. But while there is certainly an element of organized reverie to the Parrot Head community, the group — its official nonprofit title is Parrot Heads in Paradise Inc.— exists to advance the social issues of its international network of local Parrot Head chapters. Membership in a chapter requires participation in various charitable and educational activities meant to better each club’s respective community.

Over the course of its 14 years in existence, the collective chapters of Parrot Heads in Paradise have raised over $43 million for charity. In addition, the group’s Lone Palm Foundation awards grants to any Parrot Head members who have themselves experienced loss due to natural disasters.

Local chapters might choose a different charity or two to fundraise for each year, but the group’s true pièce de résistance is its annual meeting in Key West, called the Meeting of the Minds. To attend, Parrot Heads must first be independently verified to be in good standing with their local club, which usually means a member has completed a certain amount of community service and charitable work annually. This year’s Meeting of the Minds will take over the Casa Marina hotel from Wednesday to Sunday, Nov. 2-6. The event promises to be as raucous as it will be humanitarian.

Attendees will continue the program’s 10-year reign as the largest blood drive in the Keys (they’ve already booked over 233 appointments on local blood mobiles for donations), will participate in the annual Zonta Breast Cancer 5K run/walk and maintain a decade’s worth of support for the Salvation Army of Monroe County by holding a children’s toy and school supply drive. On the revelry side of things, they’ll attend street festivals, Buffett memorabilia auctions, raffles and beach parties.

Of course, the event is really about music appreciation and this year’s 30-band lineup will perform concerts spread across town, featuring big names like eight-time CMA Musician of the Year Award-winner Mac Mcanally, rising star Aaron Scherz, members of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band and a few yet-to-be-announced surprise performances.

When people hear “surprise performance,” they can’t help but hope that one performer in particular might casually swing by, though there’s no word on whether the man himself will be making an appearance this year. Buffett has been known to gift his fans with last-minute performances (most recently in 2011 and 2015) though, of course, his extreme fame means event organizers must work around the clock to ensure ample security is in place before his arrival.

This year’s staff of 132 security volunteers will work in tandem with local police to control crowds in case Buffett decides to stop by for a song or two. The whole thing takes thousands of hours to put together, a labor of love for Parrot Heads in Paradise Director of Conventions Andrew Talbert, who maintains the work is well worth it. “I get excited watching people get excited, surprising people, making people happy,” he said. “I just love it.”

Talbert, who balances a full-time job at Proctor and Gamble alongside the time-consuming demands of planning such a massive event, doesn’t mince words. “I can’t tell you how many hours a year I spend on this event, but I can tell you that if I’m not thinking about it, I’m working on it, and that includes holidays — Christmas, Thanksgiving, you name it.” Talbert, a lifetime music aficionado, is a true Buffett fan, first discovering his music as a teenager in rural Mississippi while Buffett was attending college nearby. “We thought he was just a local boy done good,” he said, estimating that since then, he’s seen Buffett in concert over 100 times.

This year’s event is shaping up to be the largest Meeting of the Minds yet, with over 5,000 registered attendees, plus hundreds more who will simply show up to watch the free concerts in the street. (The event has been sold out to Parrot Heads for a while now, but many of the event’s concerts are performed in public spaces — including when Buffett essentially shut down most of Duval Street during his impromptu concert in 2011.)

Talbert admits that he’s already working on 2017’s Meeting of the Minds and has been for over three months. “I’ve already been thinking about what we’re going to do for the next two years.”

Buffett will turn 70 this Christmas, raising the question of just how long he will continue to tour extensively, and what will happen to the Parrot Heads when he stops. “We’ve still got a lot of new members coming in,” Talbert said. “I keep getting emails from people who are brand new (to the event) and that makes me really happy.” Though Buffett’s tour schedule has slowed considerably over the years, Talbert isn’t too worried about the group losing its leader to retirement any time soon. “Jimmy loves the limelight. He won’t go away until he just can’t do it anymore because he loves performing.”

So that I don’t incur the wrath of the Parrotheads: OK, technically Buffett is a musician/restaurateur/author/songwriter/ actor/philanthropist/businessman/ pilot, but for the sake of this article, let’s focus on the music.

Timothy B. Schmit is better known to many as the bass player for seminal Californian band The Eagles. (Ironically, he was the only member of the band who could claim to be a native Californian.) Among countless other achievements, Schmit also boasts the honor of having played on Toto’s 1983 magnificent hit single “Africa,” arguably the best song to sing at any karaoke night worth attending.

For more information about the 2016 Meeting of the Minds or Parrot Heads in Paradise visit their website at www.phip.com. ¦


“Meeting of the Minds” gift baskets go to every attendee.

“Meeting of the Minds” gift baskets go to every attendee.

Parrot Heads are fans of Jimmy Buffett.

Parrot Heads are fans of Jimmy Buffett.

Last year’s “Meeting of Minds” street festival.

Last year’s “Meeting of Minds” street festival.

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