Dennis police close beaches amid huge, rowdy July Fourth crowds

Graham Krewinghaus, Cape Cod Times
Updated ·4 min read
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MAYFLOWER BEACH, DENNIS — Chapin’s Bayside has paid Paul Schiavi, who said he’s otherwise retired, for almost a decade to blow leaves and to shoo away any beach visitors who try to park in the restaurant's lot before it opens at 4 p.m.

It’s an easy job most days, he said. But on Tuesday, it was not so pleasant. Schiavi said he had to turn cars around almost nonstop.

“Yesterday was the worst day I’ve ever had,” Schiavi said about this year’s Fourth. “It was a mess. There were about 100 cars trying to park here.”

On Wednesday, he spoke in between trips to the front of the lot, where cars would arrive every few minutes looking to park there and walk to Mayflower Beach. It was more manageable than Tuesday, he said, in part because it was mostly families, rather than rowdy college students.

Traffic lines up along Horsefoot Path near the intersection with Coolidge Way with cars waiting to drop off beachgoers heading to Mayflower Beach in Dennis. The parking lot was full by early morning on Wednesday despite the fog. Beach traffic is a major headache for neighbors of the popular beach.
Traffic lines up along Horsefoot Path near the intersection with Coolidge Way with cars waiting to drop off beachgoers heading to Mayflower Beach in Dennis. The parking lot was full by early morning on Wednesday despite the fog. Beach traffic is a major headache for neighbors of the popular beach.

College students have been using Mayflower Beach to party.

“It was all young kids coming yesterday,” Schiavi said. “It was [expletive] crazy.”

Alex Quintero, a beach monitor at Mayflower Beach who spent a good part of Wednesday waving people on from the already-full beach parking lot, said that in the last few years, huge groups of college students have started showing up for July Fourth looking for a big party.

“I’m still unpacking it myself, what happened yesterday,” Quintero said.

Dennis police officers made their first arrest of the day before 8 a.m., he said. The lot was full by 10 a.m., when a party bus dropped off another 40 people. By 3 p.m., Quintero said, he heard that police had arrested around 21 people, mostly for alcohol-related offenses.

Dennis police were forced to close beaches when Tuesday's storm didn't stop people.

They kept coming through the rain, Quintero said, taking Ubers to the beach, walking a mile from Dennis’ Main Street or parking at Chapin Beach and walking a mile along the coast to get to where people were gathered on Mayflower Beach.

Paul Schiavi of Dennis works for Chapin's Bayside in Dennis, a restaurant across the street from Mayflower Beach. Part of his job is turning around beachgoers trying to park in the restaurant lot. The Fourth of July was the worst day in the decade he's been doing it, he said, because of all the rowdy college students arriving at the beach to party.
Paul Schiavi of Dennis works for Chapin's Bayside in Dennis, a restaurant across the street from Mayflower Beach. Part of his job is turning around beachgoers trying to park in the restaurant lot. The Fourth of July was the worst day in the decade he's been doing it, he said, because of all the rowdy college students arriving at the beach to party.

But as the afternoon progressed and storms hit the Cape, the crowd quickly became dangerous for everyone present, not just the people drinking. Quintero said when it started thundering, beach staff had to clear everyone out of the water. But that even after that, with rain and thunder and lightning, it was a chore to keep drunk college students from the ocean.

Eventually, the Dennis Police Department ordered all northside beaches closed, saying that it had become a safety issue amid the storm. In a statement on Facebook, they said that walking on or parking at any of Dennis’ northside beaches would be prohibited until 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Police officials were not immediately available to comment on the closure or their presence on the beach on Tuesday. A representative of the department said Wednesday they were still overwhelmed dealing with the many arrests made Tuesday.

This isn't the first year beach crowds have turned rowdy.

Leading up to July Fourth, Dennis police were making extensive preparations after a rowdy Independence Day in 2022.

“You can expect a large police presence around the town’s beaches, especially in the area of Mayflower Beach where we will be very visible,” police officials wrote Monday.

Last year, police broke up crowds of up to 300 people at the beaches on the Fourth of July, but told the Times no one was arrested.

A Dennis selectman picked up trash left on the beaches.

Dennis selectman Chris Lambton said that after he’d seen the storm had cleared, he had an idea of how he could help in the aftermath of the festivities.

“I thought I’d lead by example,” Lambton said. “So I went down with trash bags.”

He put out a call to neighbors to join him on Mayflower Beach, and picked up trash strewn along the beach from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. He said there were towels, shoes and more large items left behind.

Lambton added that his first job growing up was with the Dennis Department of Public Works, working to clean the very same beaches.

“I was reliving my glory of the summer jobs I did with my brother, with my friends,” Lambton said, laughing. “I hope it made their jobs easier.”

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Dennis police shut down northside beaches after July 4 storm, crowds