After 25 years of ‘dropping’ in a giant red glitter high-heeled shoe on New Year’s Eve, Key West’s legendary drag queen Sushi has hung up the heel.
For a quarter of a century, Sushi has starred in the Bourbon St. Pub complex’s New Year’s Eve festivities, a Florida Keys takeoff on New York City’s Times Square ball drop that’s dubbed the Red Shoe Drop. Each December 31, wearing a lavish self-designed and and hand-sewn gown, Sushi perches in a super-sized replica of a woman’s red shoe high above Key West’s Duval Street, bantering with thousands of revelers below while entertainers perform on a streetside stage. Seconds before midnight, the red shoe-carrying Sushi is ‘dropped’ from the complex’s second-story balcony, landing amid fanfare and applause as the clock strikes midnight.