As mid-March approached, colleges and coastal cities prepared for the inevitable: swarms of students fresh out of Zoom school looking to make barrels in a global pandemic.
In Florida, Palm Beach extended its curfew from 1 am to 5 am to detain Spring Breakers. In Texas, a county judge reminded residents last year when children drinking beer caused several superspreader events. The University of California Davis even offered to pay students to stay home, though not much – their “Spring Break Grants”, which students had to sign up for, came to $ 75 gift cards for local businesses .
But the warnings did not stop the crowds from gathering in popular spring break destinations, from Miami to South Padre Island and Panama City.
“We are packed from the moment we open until the moment we close,” Sydney, the manager of the Bacon Bitch restaurant in Miami Beach, told The Daily Beast on Saturday. The Spring Break access point is in the state with the highest number of cases of the new UK COVID variant in the country. She estimated that the restaurant, which has a capacity for about 175 people, has been serving “thousands every day” since the beginning of March.
Other Miami Beach businesses are also packed – eight restaurants and clubs along bustling Ocean Ave were too busy to talk on the phone on Saturday. A spokesman for the Yardbird Southern Table and Bar told The Daily Beast that they have had a “huge flow of business” in the past two weeks due to several spring holidays. At The Standard, a sophisticated hotel in the Biscayne Bay area of Miami Beach, a representative said his rooms were full every weekend this month.
Among the almost unmasked crowds in South Beach this week, an Alabama A&M junior told the Miami Herald: “Grandma shouldn’t be here anyway. It’s a lot of people. “
The Miami Beach police department, which has stepped up its crackdowns over the spring break in recent years, even using riot gear to intimidate partygoers, has dealt with crowds using extreme force that many claim to target black tourists .
On Friday night, the MBPD tweeted who were dealing with “very large crowds”, noting that they detained several people and were “forced to use pepper balls” on civilians. A video showed partygoers tampering with a police car. Another disturbing video showed a massive crowd spreading out as half a dozen policemen descended on a single man, lifting his body in the air and throwing it on the floor.
The Miami Dade chapter of the NAACP, which shared the video on Instagram, called for the resignation of the Miami Beach Police Chief last year after several incidents of police brutality at the Black Spring Breakers. (The Miami and Miami Beach Police Departments did not respond to requests for comment.)
On social media, local event planners launched weeks of events to cater to tourists. The Instagram page @ SpringBreakMiami2021 shared a poster on Saturday morning for a “Freaknik Pool Party” at a “Secret Mansion Location” that night. The after-party, also held at an undisclosed club, had the theme “Hennything Goes”.
Another Instagram page invited guests to a pool party in a white dress called “Cocaina”, promising mermaids, fire dancers, hookahs and another mansion. The invitations did not mention masks, COVID-19 or social distance. (None of the pages responded to requests for comment).
Some event pages were more secretive in their ads. The operator of an event page in a different city in Florida told The Daily Beast that he had been advised not to talk about the site. “The company is after me,” wrote the administrator. “They don’t even want me to post[s]. “
The Spring Breakers wave was aided by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said in his state of the state speech in early March that he welcomed visitors to Florida, hoping to stimulate the local economy. DeSantis also made it more difficult for municipalities to enforce their own regulations by signing an executive order to cancel all fines for COVID-19 violations.
Vaccinations in the state have steadily increased to about 14 percent of the population in the past week. But even after recent updates to their travel guidelines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still advise against unnecessary travel.
“We are very concerned that there is a convergence of people here,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN last week, “and a real problem after that.”
On South Padre Island, on the southeastern coast of Texas, a beachfront bar called Clayton’s shared a now viral video of masked participants huddled in circles and playing beer pong. The owner, Clayton Brashear, told the local KVEO-TV station that he welcomed the crowd. “For Spring Break we really decided at the last minute that we are going to open, have DJs, shows, everything,” he said.
Brashear encouraged guests to wear masks, he said, but he is not forcing it. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who tried several times to reopen the state during the pandemic, left the state mask’s mandate on March 10. A few days earlier, on March 2, the state recorded a test positivity rate of more than 12 percent – three times the national average.
The bar also operates an oceanfront stage called Clayton’s Spring Break Beach Stage, in partnership with a Spring Break website to offer promotions at events, which take place daily. (Neither Clayton nor the website responded to requests for comment.)
“With Panama City banning Gulf Shores from drinking on the beach in March and being anti-college spring break, South Padre Island is WELCOME,” says the website, which charges $ 65 for a “bracelet from party package ”.
About Clayton, he adds: “There is no doubt that this is the biggest place for daytime spring break parties on South Padre Island.”