TYBEE ISLAND ― Tension is as much a part of the historic fabric of Orange Crush, the annual HBCU spring break beach bash on the Georgia coast, as string bikinis and thumping bass.
The 2026 edition, though, is trending more on the stress-free side.
Muted is the decades-long discord between residents and partyers, tempered by a successful 2025 event sanctioned by the island’s government. And a conflict between that gathering’s promoters, who had proposed competing events spread out over two weekends, is over.
What’s coming the weekend of April 18-19 for students of historically Black colleges and universities is a rebranded beach music festival near the Tybee Pier and a car and motorcycle show and pool party the next day in Allenhurst, about a 90-minute drive from the shore.
Credit: Justin Taylor for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Justin Taylor for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Crush Reloaded, the beach party, is led by Steven Smalls, the Jacksonville-based promoter who operated last year’s bash. The Allenhurst Orange Crush event is the brainchild of Savannah native George Turner, the Orange Crush trademark holder and Smalls’ former business partner.
Smalls and Turner suffered a falling out in the weeks ahead of the 2025 event and engaged in a public feud in the days afterward, with Turner demanding Smalls pay him a $50,000 licensing fee to use the Orange Crush name. The acrimony grew as both men applied for a special event permit to put on the 2026 festival.
Tybee City Council later approved Smalls’ application and denied Turner’s. At a November hearing appealing the decision, Turner spoke for nearly 30 minutes and left the chambers saying the decision was a “clear betrayal.”
The two have since “resolved any past personal matters,” Smalls said, adding that Turner retains the trademark and the right to produce his own events. Turner, via email, confirmed that detente.
“We remain connected, supportive of one another, and excited about moving forward in our respective roles,” Smalls said.
Tybee officials worked with both last year to reestablish the beach party as a legitimate event after nearly 35 years as a free-for-all with a reputation for lewd behavior, crippling traffic and, in some instances, violence.
The 2023 Orange Crush was particularly problematic. An estimated 111,000 visitors converged on the island over a three-day weekend. A Tybee police officer was assaulted, and two attendees were beaten and robbed on the beach. Several young women sought protection, fearing sexual assaults. Stalled traffic contributed to a road-rage shooting.
Tybee officials responded in 2024 by closing public parking lots, barricading streets leading into residential neighborhoods and operating a roadblock on the causeway connecting Tybee to the mainland.
The crackdown, modeled after Miami Beach’s “break up with spring break” campaign, cut the number of visitors to about 55,000 and limited misconduct. But the unwelcoming environment troubled some locals.
Enter Smalls and Turner. After months of negotiations, Tybee issued them a permit for 2025. While the promoters encountered logistical problems that delayed the party’s start by several hours, the event attracted what Tybee City Manager Bret Bell labeled a “great crowd.”
The most violent incident during Orange Crush 2025 was not related to the festival or its attendees — two local residents, male siblings, got into a dispute, with one shooting and killing the other.
Bell and city elected officials are optimistic about the 2026 Crush Reloaded’s chances for success. The festival will again be centered on an entertainment stage on the beach, but Smalls also received approval to set up a “vendors village” that will include food trucks on property owned by an oceanfront hotelier, Hotel Tybee.
The food truck park will supplement the offerings of local businesses near the beach, many of which have said they will be open this year after closing for Orange Crush in previous years because of concerns over the size of the crowds. Several modified operations last year, closing their dining rooms but selling food and drink in a grab-and-go setup.
Tybee will once again work with other local and state law enforcement agencies to ensure an “overwhelming show of force” on the weekend, Bell said.
Credit: RJ Smith/Savannah Morning News
Credit: RJ Smith/Savannah Morning News
But the on-street closures of the last two years are likely to be scaled back to allow more attendees to park closer to the Crush Reloaded site. And Smalls, with Tybee’s blessing, is working to establish a shuttle service to ferry partyers from other parts of Tybee and perhaps even Savannah, located 20 minutes away.
Even so, Tybee’s Bell said local officials would like to see a crowd size similar to last year, when an estimated 20,000 visitors attended, fewer than in some earlier years.
“We want to make logistics easier and be good hosts,” he said. “But we’re not looking to jam more people onto Tybee.”
How Orange Crush got its start:
The beach bash dates to 1989 as a spring break weekend party organized by the student government association of the local historically Black university, Savannah State University. The founders included NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe and current Savannah Mayor Van Johnson. They took the Orange Crush name from one of the school’s colors.
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 Tybee Island Beach, a short drive from Savannah, had become a tradition, and the students and young adults kept coming for one Saturday each April.
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