The Conch Republic celebrates Independence Day every April 23 as part of a week-long festival of activities involving numerous businesses in Key West [2] including local rum distilleries like Chef Distilled.

[3] The organization—a "Sovereign State of Mind", seeking only to bring more "humor, warmth and respect" to a world in sore need of all three according to its late secretary general, Peter Anderson—is a key tourism booster for the area.

Eastern Air Lines, which had a hub at Miami International Airport, saw a window of opportunity when the roadblocks were established; Eastern was at the time the only airline to establish jet service to Key West International Airport, counting on travelers from Key West to Miami preferring to fly rather than to wait for police to search their vehicles.

On September 20, 1995, it was reported that the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion of the United States Army Reserve was to conduct a training exercise simulating an invasion of a foreign island.

Seeing another chance at publicity, Wardlow and the forces behind the 1982 Conch Republic secession mobilized the island for a full-scale war, sending the schooner Western Union out to attack an incoming Coast Guard cutter with water balloons, conch fritters and stale Cuban bread (to which the Coast Guard responded with their fire hoses, quickly ending the battle), and protested to the Department of Defense for arranging this exercise without consulting the city officials.

The leaders of the 478th issued an apology the next day, saying they "in no way meant to challenge or impugn the sovereignty of the Conch Republic", and submitted to a surrender ceremony on September 22.

[6] During the U.S. federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996, as a protest, the republic sent a flotilla of Conch Navy, civilian, and fire department boats to Fort Jefferson, located in Dry Tortugas National Park, to reopen it.

The rationale was that, since two sections of the span had been removed and it was no longer connected to land, it was not part of U.S. territory subject to the "dry feet" rule, and thus the refugees could not stay.

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, FBI investigators thought that hijacker Mohamed Atta had possibly purchased a Conch Republic passport[11] from the website.

The Conch Republic actively maintains an Army, Navy, and Air Force whose primary duties are to help re-enact the Great Sea Battle of 1982 and the retaking of Fort Jefferson.