The annual Orange Crush festival, traditionally teeming with Black college students on Tybee Island, will face new restrictions following last year’s raucous gathering. Tybee Island authorities are reinforcing police presence and installing barricades to limit public access and parking, measures which - inflamed by spring break chaos elsewhere - are intended to curb past disturbances.
With last year's event bringing in a crowd exceeding 100,000, which dwarfed the 3,100 residents of the island, local law enforcement struggled to manage numerous emergency calls. The incidents reported included gunshots, drug overdoses, and physical altercations, as described by WABE.
Mayor Brian West, who came into power on the promise of action, expressed his stance unequivocally: “This has to stop. We can’t have this crowd anymore,” he told WABE. Despite assurances that race is not a factor, the crackdown has drawn criticism. Accusations of targeting Black visitors have been raised, particularly as the island has welcomed large crowds on other occasions largely without incident.
Seen walking the sands, residents have voiced their displeasure with the festival’s byproducts of noise and litter. Julia Pearce, a leader of the Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization, argues that selective enforcement hints at a deep-seated bias. “They believe Black folks to be criminals,” Pearce asserted in her critique of the official reaction.
As the island prepares for this year’s event, roughly 100 additional law enforcement officers from various agencies will supplement Tybee Island's police force. Parking meters and streets near the beach are being closed off, and large parking lots will be shut down, mirroring tactics that Tybee Island's police chief observed in Miami Beach last month to quell spring break disturbances.
The significant law enforcement planned for Orange Crush contrasts with the island's usual festivities, raising questions about the city's stance towards the event. Mayor Van Johnson from Savannah, a Savannah State University alumnus who was among the founders of Orange Crush, shared his concerns with reporters about the "over-representation of police" at the beach party.
Local businesses are bracing for the impact. Nickie's 1971 Bar & Grill general manager, Sean Ensign, plans to remain open but anticipates a possible financial hit due to restricted access, potentially costing "possibly a few thousand dollars," as he told reporters.
Controversy also surrounds the event's promotion. While Britain Wigfall was denied a permit for a food truck space during Orange Crush, he conveyed to WABE that he is promoting a concert in Savannah, not on Tybee Island. Meanwhile, Mayor West points to a new state law allowing local governments to recoup costs from organizers of unpermitted events.
As the weekend gears up and students flock to celebrate, the tug-of-war between public safety, profitability, and perceptions of racial bias on Tybee Island persists. Both supporters and detractors look to the event with a wary eye, waiting to see how this year's Orange Crush unfolds under the island's restrictive gaze.
