Underwater Music Festival

Float over a living coral reef at Looe Key while a four-hour, ocean-themed playlist gets piped through underwater speakers and costumed "mermaids" mime along to a song called, unforgettably, the trom-bonefish. The Underwater Music Festival has run for more than 40 years as a conservation stunt dressed up as a party — the point was always to get people to care about a reef by making them float above it having a genuinely good time.

This runs annually, not biennially, contrary to some listings — the 43rd edition lands in mid-July 2027, exact date TBD until the Lower Keys Chamber announces it, typically around May or June of the event year. The festival itself is free, but the real cost is reef access: a paid dive-shop boat spot, snorkel or dive gear, and Florida Keys lodging in peak July, which isn't cheap.

Dive-shop boats routinely take solo snorkelers with no buddy or boat of their own required, and a boat full of strangers headed to the same reef for the same absurd reason is inherently social. You just need basic water competence and a willingness to laugh at yourself while treading water to a playlist.