Orange Crush 2025: Popular Georgia vacation town approves return of crime-filled beach fest

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‘Orange Crush’ spring bash on Tybee Island

Scenes from the beach during this weekend’s "Orange Crush" event in Georgia. (Credit: Roger Lyon/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)

Tybee Island, Georgia, plans to welcome back the controversial “Orange Crush” music festival in April, so long as the organizers agree to meet certain conditions.

“Thanks for your interest in the 2025 Orange Crush Festival!” a post on the Orange Crush Instagram page reads. “We’re thrilled to announce that for the first time in decades, we are fully permitted and ready to celebrate April 18-20.”

The event previously came to the popular Georgia beach town but without official permits issued by the city. It has also built a reputation for creating security and trash issues on the island.

The Tybee Island City Council on Jan. 26 sent a conditional letter of approval to Orange Crush organizer Steven Smalls, saying that the city will issue a special events permit to the festival after “all conditions” listed in the letter “have been addressed to the satisfaction” of local government leaders.

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Aerial drone footage showing a packed beach of Tybee Island, Georgia, which has a population of 3,000.  (LOCAL NEWS X)

Conditions that need to be met include event timing and placement requirements to “coordinate municipal services”; assuring “the preservation of public property”; preventing dangerous and unlawful behavior; ensuring people’s safety at the event; and planning for traffic control, among other conditions.

If the “scope, intensity, location, type or size of the event” deviates from the city’s requirements, permit approval will be retracted.

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“Orange Crush Festival 2025 is bringing nothing but HEAT this year,” a Thursday announcement on the festival’s Facebook page reads, adding that this year’s event will be “the BIGGEST Orange Crush Festival yet!”

“You already know it’s about to be legendary!” the post reads.

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Last year, the event came to Tybee without an official permit. Videos from the festival shared on social media showed violent brawls, women throwing haymakers and wrestling with each other, and piles of trash growing on the beach.

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In the early 1990s, Orange Crush had a reputation for being a wild, crime-filled weekend, and Savannah State University disassociated with the event in 1991 because of the high number of arrests and reports of violence.

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Two years ago, the event moved to Jacksonville, Florida, “due to lack of resources, limited parking, civil rights violations and political injustices,” according to a June 2021 story on Jacksonville.com, which cited the event’s website. The website has since been taken down.

The event returned to Tybee Island in 2023 for the first time since 2020.

Fox News Digital’s Chris Eberhart and Bonny Chu contributed to this report. 

Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.