Key West, Florida welcomed 2016 by
lowering drag queen Sushi in a giant high-heeled red shoe from a
rooftop.
The annual celebration started in 1996.
This year, Gary Marion, who goes by the
stage name Sushi, exchanged vows with longtime boyfriend Jeff Kucin
inside the shoe about 90 minutes before the descent. Sushi, who each
year makes a special dress for the occasion, wore a silver-and-white
gown. Thousands of revelers gathered outside the island's Bourbon
St. Pub complex on Duval Street to cheer the couple as they exchanged
“I do's.”
“It was inspired by Priscilla
Queen of the Desert when it first came out, with the whole high
heel on top of the bus,” Joey Schroeder, owner of Bourbon St. Pub,
told CNN in 2013. “I wanted to take that idea and do something fun
on New Year's Eve.”
The annual tradition has helped make
Key West a New Years Eve destination.