On any given night, entertainment seekers of all kinds can find more than enough live music in Key West for little more than the cost of a beer. So in a town like âMargaritaville,â that has been inspiring musicians for decades, perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that something big was brewing, something beyond the Cow Key Channel Bridge. Enter Charlie Bauer. After booking acts into his bars for many years, he and an old friend, Drew Reid, tossed about the idea of inviting Nashville-based songwriters to town for a festival of sorts. It had never been done, so the outcome was unknown. That was, technically, 26 years ago, but, like so many other things, COVID-19 threw off things functionally, as well as chronologically. Fact is, 2021 is officially the 25th anniversary of the Key West Songwriters Festival and it just keeps getting bigger and better.