Police arrested 54 people after an annual event where chaotic scenes unfolded on a Georgia beach when women began fighting.
This year’s Orange Crush gathering drew more than 6,000 people to Tybee Island, where rowdy vacationers inflicted an estimated $220,000 in costs on the community, including damage and cleanup.
In addition to the arrest count, officials also issued 116 citations to attendees and recovered three stolen firearms as well as a stolen vehicle.
Before the event began, Tybee Island police swelled their ranks with more than 100 law enforcement officers from the Georgia State Police, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and other local police departments.
They did this in a bid to avoid the kind of chaos that characterized the previous Orange Crush event, for which more than 100,000 participants flocked to the three-mile island.
This year’s Orange Crush event, in which a huge fight broke out on the beach boardwalk (pictured), resulted in 54 arrests and 116 citations.
During the spring break event, Tybee Island Beach, the largest public beach in Georgia, was littered with all types of trash, which was then picked up by volunteers and lifeguards.
For this year’s event, the small resort town refused to rent the pier pavilion, where many of the unruly and troublesome partiers gathered last year. Authorities also closed the pier and used it as a sort of command post for law enforcement. But despite the city’s best efforts, violence still broke out Saturday.
At one point during the boisterous party, which is part of a spring break tradition created by Savannah State University students more than 30 years ago, a fierce fight broke out on the beach boardwalk.
Video captured the shocking melee, during which several women, some of them topless, could be seen violently punching and punching each other.
The disturbing footage showed the women punching each other while other revelers lined the boardwalk and cheered on the fighters.
In the middle of the fight, some of the women had their blouses pulled down or removed from their place.
Some of the women stopped fighting and tried to get dressed. Another woman, in a green swimsuit, could be seen continuing to fight, even after her breasts were revealed.
During the Orange crisis, the entire beach was covered in trash, much of which was eventually washed into the ocean.
The Orange Crush event caused costs estimated at $220,000 in the small resort town of Tybee Island.
In one horrifying moment, a shorter woman with fiery orange hair knocked another woman to the ground by her hair and then began punching her before other women pulled her away.
Later in the video, the same woman with orange hair threw a punch at a woman in a green bikini that was so violent that it momentarily caused her head to snap back.
Throughout the nearly two and a half minute long video, men and women clap and shout enthusiastically as the women on the boardwalk exchange blows.
Despite the violence on display, state and local officials insisted that the event passed off calmly and in order.
As the event unfolded Saturday, Maj. Bob Holley of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said, “The behavior has been pretty good today.”
Orange Crush happens annually. This year, 6,000 attendees descended on Tybee Island for its spring break party. During the event, police recovered three stolen firearms, as well as a stolen vehicle
The Orange Crush happens every year and is predominantly made up of college students. At last year’s festival, 100,000 revelers descended on the three-mile island, testing the small town’s resources. To avoid a repeat of what happened last year, Tybee Island police were reinforced with officers from other departments.
Tybee Island lifeguards and some Orange Crush attendees gathered on the beach Sunday morning to begin cleaning up the beach, which was trashed during the event.
Talking with WSAVHolley said, “We’ve responded to some medical calls with Tybee medical authorities and that’s pretty much all we’ve done today.”
Tybee Island Mayor Brian West took a similar tone when speaking with WTO11 on Monday.
West told the outlet that the weekend was an enjoyable experience and that it attracted a quieter crowd to the 3-mile-long island.
‘I feel like we had the real student body, you know, this year. And it was a nice experience for us here at Tybee.’
A video uploaded to TikTok during the event documented the large amount of trash strewn along the beach of Tybee Island, the largest public beach in Georgia.
In the video, empty beer cans and liquor bottles, as well as other debris, were spread across the sand and swept into the ocean.
The video sparked angry responses from some viewers when one commenter wrote: “Wow, it’s not hard to use the trash can.”
And another person offered this stern rebuke: “If you can’t respect the beach, stay away from the beach.”
On Sunday morning, the day after the event, members of Tybee Island Ocean Rescue and some Orange Crush attendees gathered along the beach, where they worked together to pick up trash left by partiers.
The cleanup ended up taking longer than anticipated, starting Sunday morning and ending Monday.
Once the cleanup was complete, Tybee Island Ocean Rescue shared on Facebook that they had removed more than 10 carts full of trash from the shoreline.
But first responders and attendants had their work cut out for them, and the cleanup continued into Monday.
Tybee Island Ocean Rescue posted a message on its Facebook thanking “everyone who helped Ocean Rescue lifeguards pick up trash yesterday afternoon.”
According to the post, lifeguards and volunteers removed enough trash from the shoreline to fill ten all-terrain vehicles.
But even after their hard work, with high tide at 6:54 p.m., much of the trash was washed out to sea.