TYBEE ISLAND ― Steven Smalls soaks in the scenery as he stands on the oceanside city’s pier looking north.
This March day is sunny yet brisk, and only the hardiest sunbathers brave the conditions to lounge by the sea. But that’s not what Smalls sees. As he gazes out, he notes a large stage facing him from some 500 yards away and a row of party tents running between the stage and the pier.
The tents border a couple of acres of sand. And there on the beach are as many as 30,000 spring breakers, mostly students at historically Black colleges and universities from around the South, enjoying the first sanctioned Orange Crush party in nearly 35 years.
“That’s my vision,” says Smalls, who lives in Jacksonville. “We’re going to make it a reality, after all this time.”
The HBCU spring bash has been happening here, not without controversies, for many years, attracting thousands of revelers. But this year it’s going official, with Tybee Island’s blessing.
Smalls and his business partner, Atlanta resident and Savannah native George Ransom Turner III, have secured a special event permit from the city of Tybee Island to stage a beach party on Saturday, April 19. The ticketed event will feature musical acts and DJs, will be alcohol free and will end no later than 9 p.m.
Smalls and Turner are partnering with other event promoters who are organizing after-parties and other festivities at clubs and venues in metro Savannah.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Here’s all you need to know about Orange Crush.
What’s the history of Orange Crush?
The beach bash started as a spring break weekend party organized by the student government association of the local HBCU, Savannah State University. The founders included NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe and current Savannah Mayor Van Johnson. They debuted Orange Crush, taking the name from one of the school’s colors, in 1989.
Savannah State ended its relationship in 1991 when that year’s party was marred by a drowning and several arrests. But by then, the weekend at Savannah’s beach had become a tradition, and the students and young adults kept coming for one Saturday each April.
The gathering’s exact date was initially spread by word-of-mouth. Following the dawn of the digital age, social media became the main marketing vehicle, with event promoters touting parties without permits under the name Orange Crush.
Why is Orange Crush so controversial?
Without a centralized organizing group or formal event structure, Orange Crush became increasingly unruly. Tybee residents complained of property damage and traffic jams, which are a public safety concern on an island accessible by only one road. The gathering was often compared to FreakNik, the HBCU spring break street party in Atlanta during the 1980s and 1990s.
Public outcry peaked in 2023 when an estimated 111,000 visitors came for Orange Crush. A Tybee police officer was assaulted, hit in the head with a bottle, and two attendees were beaten and robbed on the beach. Several young women sought protection from police and residents out of fear of sexual assault on the beach. Stalled traffic on the highway leading off Tybee contributed to a road rage shooting committed by a non-Orange Crush participant.
Tybee officials responded by implementing $250,000 worth of public safety measures for the 2024 Orange Crush. Modeled after Miami South Beach’s “break up with spring break” campaign, city leaders limited parking, closed off residential streets and enlisted law enforcement professionals from around metro Savannah and state agencies.
The crackdown was deemed a success, with no major incidents. A fistfight between two female attendees on a beach crossover went viral on social media but the altercation did not result in serious injury. City officials reported 54 arrests, 111 traffic citations and five beach citations over Orange Crush weekend.
Still, some island residents protested Tybee becoming a “militarized zone” for the weekend and said the measures violated a 2018 agreement with the Department of Justice about regulating Orange Crush and similar large events. The DOJ deal was struck after a group of concerned Tybee residents filed a complaint against a local ordinance that banned alcohol and amplified music specifically on Orange Crush weekend.
Community activist Julia Pearce labeled the approach another example of an island populated by “old white people” choosing to criminalize young Black people. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Tybee is 94% white and 3.5% Black.
What’s different this year?
Rather than a rogue, come-as-you-please beach bash, Smalls and Turner sought and secured a special event permit for Orange Crush 2025. They met a series of requirements, such as hiring professional security, implementing a sanitation plan for beach cleanup and securing an insurance policy, in order to put on a ticketed event on the beach.
According to Smalls, the Orange Crush organizers will spend $215,000 on the event. They are selling tickets and VIP experiences for the party on the beach, although an admission fee is not required to enter the state-owned beach. The Orange Crush group’s other revenue streams are sponsorships and merchandise and water sales.
The Orange Crush festival will be similar to organized spring break parties thrown at coastal locales such as Daytona Beach and Panama City Beach in Florida and South Padre Island in Texas.
Smalls and Turner are working with an Atlanta-based event management firm, N3w H3ights. The company has pledged to provide 50 staffers for the festival.
City officials intend to employ the same public safety measures this year as they did in 2024. They plan to install nearly five miles of barricades to again limit parking and access to neighborhoods and promise a similar high law enforcement presence.
Credit: RJ Smith/Savannah Morning News
Credit: RJ Smith/Savannah Morning News
What do Tybee residents think?
Tybee Mayor Brian West puts it bluntly, saying “We all mostly have bad memories of past events” related to Orange Crush. At 3 square miles and with only one road leading on and off the island, many residents agree with his assertion that Tybee is too small to be the site of such a large party.
Yet Tybee residents acknowledge the spring breakers are going to come anyways, and many say the city is better off working with organizers to host a sanctioned event than to have a free-for-all. That was the consensus among the 50-plus residents who attended an Orange Crush information session in the Tybee City Council chambers on Friday, the day after the event permit was officially granted.
“As bad as 2023 was and as good as 2024 went, I think it is awesome that Tybee and the organizers are getting together and planning,” said Andy Hughes, who owns a cottage with his wife two blocks from the beach. “This is how it should happen.”
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