Thousands of Black college students expected this weekend for an annual spring bash at Georgia’s largest public beach will be greeted by dozens of extra police officers and barricades closing off neighborhood streets. While the beach will remain open, officials are blocking access to nearby parking.
Tybee Island, east of Savannah, has grappled with the April beach party known as Orange Crush since students at Savannah State University, a historically Black school, started it more than 30 years ago. Residents regularly groused about loud music, trash littering the sand and revelers urinating in yards.
Those complaints boiled over into fear and outrage a year ago when record crowds estimated at more than 100,000 people overwhelmed the 3-mile island. That left a small police force scrambling to handle a flood of emergency calls reporting gunfire, drug overdoses, traffic jams and fist fights.
Atlanta had a small concert thing going put on by the 99x music station there that was only worth it because it was free. (On the Bricks was the name.) Great acts played there, but the crowds were terrible. Soooo many people and the hivemind was in full effect. N.E.R.D. was there and they played their popular song at the time (Lapdance I think.) and the crowd would not let them play anything else. Did the same thing to Sevendust. I don’t think it lasted long though.
Atlanta crowds are something else.