KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — The 40th edition of an Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest has begun at an iconic Key West bar formerly frequented by the author.
Thursday's opening marked the return of a contest canceled last year by the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 70 stocky, bearded men resembling the late Hemingway competed in the first of two preliminary rounds. Another round is planned Friday and the winner is to be chosen Saturday night.
The three-night contest is a cornerstone of the island’s Hemingway Days festival, a salute to his writing talent, legacy and adventurous life.
Hemingway lived and wrote on the subtropical island for most of the 1930s.
