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Pie in the sky gets the drop in final day of Key Lime Festival in Key West

Left to right, Kim Works of Key West, Fla., and event M.C. Landon Barbary, watch as Works’ entry, “A Pie in Plain Sight,” hurls into space from the observation deck of the historic Key West Lighthouse during the July 6, 2025 Key Lime Pie Drop in Key West, Fla. An annual Key Lime Festival event, the gravity-defying competition challenges participants to advance-create a device or container to protect a 5” pie and keep it from splattering on impact when dropped from the observation deck of the historic Key West Lighthouse to a targeted area 88-feet below. Works and partner Yvonne Jefferson crafted their first-prize-winning entry using a plastic tub, tissue paper, plastic bags and ribbon.
Carol Tedesco/Florida Keys News Bureau
Left to right, Kim Works of Key West, Fla., and event M.C. Landon Barbary, watch as Works’ entry, “A Pie in Plain Sight,” hurls into space from the observation deck of the historic Key West Lighthouse during the July 6, 2025 Key Lime Pie Drop in Key West, Fla. An annual Key Lime Festival event, the gravity-defying competition challenges participants to advance-create a device or container to protect a 5” pie and keep it from splattering on impact when dropped from the observation deck of the historic Key West Lighthouse to a targeted area 88-feet below. Works and partner Yvonne Jefferson crafted their first-prize-winning entry using a plastic tub, tissue paper, plastic bags and ribbon.

Key Lime pies can’t fly. That was amply demonstrated Sunday, July 6, during the Key Lime Pie Drop that highlighted the final day of Key West’s annual Key Lime Festival.

Entrants in the quirky competition were required to launch miniature Key lime pies —encased in protective contraptions they made in advance — from atop the Key West Lighthouse.

Their goal? To land an undamaged pie on a ground-level target beside the light, now open for tours as the historic Key West Lighthouse & Keeper’s Quarters.

More than two dozen individual and team contestants climbed the 88 steps to the top of the lighthouse tower to compete. Their pies were enclosed in creations that featured pool noodles, smiley-face balloons, stuffed animals, makeshift parachutes, bubble wrap and — for one memorable entry — a 35-inch plush goose dressed in a cape and shades.

Most proved to be aerially unsound, resulting in mishaps that ranged from off-course landings to crashed contraptions and complete pie annihilation.

Though few pies survived the gravity-defying drop, an entry dubbed “A Pie in Plain Sight” crafted from a plastic tub, tissue paper, plastic bags and ribbon sailed sweetly toward the target and landed with its pie mostly intact — earning the contest’s first prize.

Staged July 2-6, the Key Lime Festival salutes the tiny yellow limes and the pie made from them. Believed to have been born in Key West, the tart yet creamy confection was designated Florida's official pie in 2006 by the state legislature.

Other events included the World Famous Key Lime Pie Eating Championship, themed dinners, parties and markets, and tasting strolls for fans of Key lime cocktails and pie.

The 2025 festival was presented in part by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council and We’ve Got the Keys.

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