JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — For the past few years, the Orange Crush Festival has been held at Tybee Island but this year it’s coming to Jacksonville Beach and Mayor of Tybee Island, Shirley Sessions says we have nothing to be concerned about.
“I don’t see that there’s anything to worry about other than having a plan in place, to deal with traffic, to deal with parking, I don’t know Jacksonville may not have the same problems as Tybee," said Sessions.
Mayor of Jacksonville Beach, Christine Hoffman, says about a week and a half ago she saw the schedule for the Orange Crush Festival on Eventbrite and most of the events are not at the beaches.
“Because the event is, I think Sheriff Mike Williams used the word haphazard in its planning. We don’t have a good insight on what to expect like we normally do," said Hoffman.
The only insight Hoffman has seen about the festival was through promo videos.
“The videos I have seen are just massive amounts of trash left and beaches residents are very protective of their shoreline," said Hoffman.
Sessions said the biggest challenge they faced during the event was crowd control but also Tybee Island is much smaller than Jacksonville Beach.
“Jacksonville has more accessibility than Tybee so I think that Jacksonville will be surprised that it will be an opportunity to welcome a group of people," said Sessions.
Sessions says litter on the beach was also a problem but since Tybee Island allows open containers at their beach she says littering is expected at large events.
“It’s my understanding that Jacksonville doesn’t have that in place. so I think that will alleviate some of the problems that we did see on Tybee," said Sessions.