After political tensions and organizational disputes pushed the Orange Crush Festival to relocate to Florida two years ago, the annual HBCU beach bash is planning a return to Tybee Island.
Orange Crush, which is one of the largest festivities for Black college students in the South, is also Tybee Island’s largest unpermitted event. Despite efforts to formalize Orange Crush as a city-sanctioned event, this year’s return, advertised for April 21-23, will go unpermitted once again.
According to Tybee Island officials, the city met with a promoter of Orange Crush, Britain Wigfall, on Wednesday to discuss special event permitting requirements. Since special event applications must be submitted 60 days prior to the event, Orange Crush will not meet the permitting deadline.
“We will prepare for this weekend with the same level of traffic controls and staff resources we prepare for all large events and busy weekends on Tybee Island,” said Michelle Owens, assistant city manager.
The Chatham County Police Department, which oversees the unincorporated area, is coordinating with the Tybee Island Police Department in case additional assistance is needed, according to Chief Jeff Hadley.
Past shooting incidents that occurred during Orange Crush weekends are putting some local officials on edge. During the March 24 county meeting, Chatham County Commission Chairman Chester Ellis said, “We don’t want that stuff that happened at Miami Beach,” referring to a deadly shooting in March that occurred during spring break celebrations.
Credit: Josh Galemore
Credit: Josh Galemore
An Orange Crush promoter, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the event’s past controversy, said he understands why local officials are wary, but assured that safety was also the organizers’ priority.
“Every event is a safety hazard. I could say the same about St. Patrick’s; we can’t control what we can’t control,” the promoter said, “Safety is the number one priority, especially for us. We don’t promote guns, violence.”
Previous efforts to coordinate Orange Crush as a permitted event have failed due to a number of reasons: scheduling conflicts, lack of communication from both the organizers and city officials, and the unofficial nature of Orange Crush.
The event has operated without a permit since 1991 when Savannah State University severed ties with the festival. Multiple promoters often advertise Orange Crush activities on social media during the spring break season, making it hard to pin down an official organizer from year-to-year.
The festival has traditionally billed itself as a beach bash and “anybody can throw a party,” said this year’s promoter, likening the event to holidays like Fourth of July and Memorial Day Weekend.
But, Tybee Island Mayor Shirley Sessions points out that the special event application provides more predictability and better safety plans for the small island. Both the city and event organizers would have a better idea of what they can handle.
“It’s about crowd control, traffic control … we can plan better if it’s been permitted,” said Sessions.
History of Orange Crush
Since 1988, Orange Crush has largely taken place on Tybee Island. Originally, Savannah State University sponsored Orange Crush, but the school severed ties with the event in 1991 after witnessing a dozen arrests, a stabbing and a drowning. Since then, Orange Crush operated without city permits ― typically required of large events that could strain city resources, such as Tybee’s Beach Bum Parade and Irish Heritage parade ― and continued to draw crowds upwards of 10,000.
The revelry typically lasts for several days between April and June. And, while multiple promoters advertise Orange Crush festivities, the official “Orange Crush Festival” trademark is owned by George Ransom Turner III, who organized the festival on Tybee in the past.
In 2021, Turner relocated the festival to Jacksonville, Florida, citing “a lack of resources, limited parking, civil rights violations, and political injustices.” For students and former Orange Crush-goers, the move broke nearly 30 years of tradition on Tybee Island.
Since then, where exactly Orange Crush will be held, has become nebulous, as the event continues to go unpermitted. Social media promotions, which is how the event is usually advertised, indicated locations in Florida as well as Tybee, leaving city officials and their public safety teams on standby.
This year, advertisements all point to a return to Tybee Island.
A fraught relationship
Tybee Island, a beach city no larger than 3.2 square miles, is constantly battling against the crush of tourism. However, previous Orange Crush-goers have said attitudes toward this event have differed from other large-scale celebrations on Tybee, such as the permitted Pirate’s Festival and unpermitted events like the 4th of July.
“During Orange Crush weekend on Tybee, you are made very aware that you, as a young African American, are not wanted there,” Jeffrey R. Finney told the Savannah Morning News in 2018.
Finney, who attended Orange Crush in 2015 and 2016, is a Georgia Southern graduate, who penned a research paper on the Orange Crush beach party in 2018. “No one wants you there: Not the police; not the residents; not the city government; not even the businesses. Many of them were closed or only partially open on the Orange Crush weekends I was there.”
Finney’s paper “‘You’re out of your place’: Black Mobility on Tybee Island, Georgia from Civil Rights to Orange Crush,” examines Tybee Island as a racialized space. Tybee was once a white’s-only beach until wade-in protests led to its desegregation in 1964. To this day, Tybee Island’s Black resident population hovers between 2-3%, whereas Savannah’s is about 54% Black.
Julia Pearce, a Black resident and founder of Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization, said Tybee used to be home to a larger community of Black families. In her capacity as an organizer, Pearce has urged the city to formalize their relationship with Orange Crush. In 2020, she worked with council member Nancy Devetter on the Justice and Equality Resolution. The resolution originally included a stipulation for the city to create a team of volunteers that would work with Orange Crush organizers to legitimize the event. However, that section was ultimately left out of the final version.
Credit: Josh Galemore
Credit: Josh Galemore
Previous incidents from Orange Crush have left residents and officials with wariness.
In 2015, two shootings over the Orange Crush weekend marred the celebrations. And, in 2019, the promoter, Turner, was arrested days before the start of Orange Crush on felony charges for property damage during a house party. Past celebrations also leave Tybee’s beach littered with trash, whereas permitted events typically require organizers to implement a clean-up plan.
In 2017, the City of Tybee Island tried to curtail attendance by banning the consumption of alcohol and playing amplified music in public spaces during the weekends Orange Crush is usually held. That ban was reinstated in 2018 and law enforcement agencies from the local, state and federal levels came in as reinforcements.
Jason Buelterman, who was Tybee’s mayor at the time, said the bans were instituted to keep both spring breakers and residents safe and proposed to extend the ban to include the March spring break period, but council voted that down.
“My concern was the perception that might come with, and how some people might perceive that as targeting a particular race instead of an age group, which I don’t think is the intent, but I know that some people perceive it that way,” Buelterman told the Savannah Morning News in 2018.
Current mayor Sessions said public safety is the number one concern for any large celebration, but people have tended to focus on the number of arrests during Orange Crush specifically.
“That’s very one-sided. Like, this is the only time we have arrests,” said Sessions. "I don't think that's fair."
The mayor assured that the line of communication for organizers is open. While this year’s event won’t be permitted, the city said they discussed with Orange Crush organizers about permitting for future events.
Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Is the Orange Crush Festival returning to Tybee Island this year?
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