Georgia-Florida is here: Opening of RV City on Tuesday will kick off Jacksonville's Rivalry Week

Welcome to Georgia-Florida week, with the usual trappings: RV City, parties, tailgating, boisterous fans and boosters, adult beverages, Frat Beach and concerts.

There will also be a football game.

For nearly four hours on Saturday, starting at 3:30 p.m. (CBS), the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs (7-0, 4-0 in the SEC) will face the struggling Florida Gators (4-3, 1-3) at TIAA Bank Field in front of what annually is the largest crowd to watch a sporting event on the First Coast.

More college football coverage

Hall of Fame class: Folkston's Champ Bailey, Andre Caldwell highlight Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame

Gene Frenette: If Gators coach Billy Napier must have a terrible defense, better it happens now

Prime Time? Deion Sanders has JSU cruising to another SWAC title. Does this mean he's ready for Power 5?

More than 80,000 will pack the stadium, field-level to the rafters, as the Dawgs play an unranked Gator team ranked first in the nation for the second year in a row. Last year’s 34-7 victory was Georgia’s fourth in five years over UF, after three cycles in which one team or the other won three years in a row: Florida from 2008-10, Georgia from 2011-2013, then UF again from 2014-16.

But the rankings and the records have never been the last word on the final outcome. The Gators won 38-20 in 2014 when unranked, against the No. 9 Bulldogs. UGA was 20th in the nation when it walloped the No. 9 Gators 42-30 in 2007. Unranked Florida beat No. 5 Georgia 20-13 in 2002 and in 1997 the No. 14 Bulldogs, 20-point underdogs to the No. 6 Gators — and coming off three losses in a row by an average of 34 points — won by 20, 37-17.

Rankings and records and indeed, the eventual result, also never stops the fans from flocking to the area, from Georgia’s Golden Isles to St. Augustine. The game has an overall economic impact of $33 million on the First Coast, according to Visit Jacksonville; and another $6 million to South Georgia, by the reckoning of the Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Last year’s Georgia-Florida week was a rebound from the 2020 pandemic year in which stadium capacity was limited to 25 percent. Obviously, tailgating and partying was almost non-existent and everyone took a financial hit.

Restaurant and bar owners around the stadium and in the downtown area had mixed reviews from last year’s game week, with the stadium sold out but the pandemic still muting the party atmosphere.

It certainly was better than 2020, when only 18,000 fans were allowed in the stadium. But 2021 still wasn't a complete bounce-back to the level of, for example, the 2018 Georgia-Florida week, in which enthusiasm was high among Gator fans in the first year under Dan Mullen.

“It was a clear difference from 2020, definitely better,” said Will Frazier, manager of Bold City Brewery on Bay Street about last year's Georgia-Florida week. “The COVID year was just a shell.”

Merchants are hoping this year gets an even bigger bump.

“It was not as intense as I thought it would get," Frazier said of 2021. "But I predict this year we’re going to be back on track for sure.”

David Cohen, owner of Manifest Distilling, which is within the shadow of TIAA Bank Field, speculated that Georgia-Florida fans might still have been a bit slow to party at the usual level, even though the game was sold out.

“I think last year was still nowhere near where it was two years before the pandemic,” he said. “For example, 2018 was really good. I’m obviously optimistic that this year will be better just because of the climate of the past year. Our event season in the summer and fall leading up to this week has been excellent, with a lot of traffic in September and we’ve done well on the first few Jaguar home games."

Recent statements from Georgia circles, such as Bulldog coach Kirby Smart and Atlanta business interests about rotating the game between the campus stadiums or between Jacksonville and Atlanta, have fired up some Jacksonville fans.

“They need to leave this game alone,” said M.J. Schroff of Jacksonville, who was at the Bold City Brewery in the Riverside area. “Atlanta has the SEC championship and those opening games. Let us have this game.”

The traditional beginning of Georgia-Florida week is Tuesday when RV City opens. From that time until postgame when one set of fans is celebrating and the other drowning their sorrows, there are wall-to-wall activities.

For information, visit the city's Georgia-Florida website at gafljax.com.

The football game

If you don’t have a ticket, you’re out of luck. This game is the fastest sell-out for either school and tickets are only available on secondary markets. Police caution fans every year to make sure they’re not getting taken in by con men.

Not having a ticket doesn’t keep thousands of people from coming to the TIAA Bank Field area. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has estimated in the past that more than 100,000 people are in the vicinity on the day of the game. Since only 80,000 are actually in the stadium for kickoff, that’s a lot of people content with tailgating, people-watching or just milling around.

There will be music, partying and yes, drinking. Fans should keep in mind that JSO has a mobile command site set up to process those who are arrested for underage drinking, being drunk and disorderly, etc., but fans who feel ill for any reason can get treatment at first-aid stations without repercussions.

On game day, fans can hang out at Daily’s Place and the Dream Finder’s Flex Field, view the Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame Exhibit or show their skills during a 3-on-3 flag football game.

By boat, bus or Skyway

It’s best to not try to drive to the stadium if you don’t have a parking pass, or a spot in a private lot. But there are options for letting someone else take the wheel.

The JTA is against operating its “Gameday Xpress” with round-trip transportation to TIAA Bank Field beginning at 12:30 p.m. and running until one hour after the end of the game. Shuttles will drop and pick up fans at Lot B.

Passes are $10 per person from the Kings Avenue parking garage and $15 from the Beaches lot (Wingate Park), Southside (Philips Highway at J. Turner Butler) and Armsdale (Lem Turner Avenue). JTA encourages fans to buy and download their bus passes from the Token Transit app before arriving at the shuttle lots.

The JTA Skyway will be free all day from eight stations on either side of the St. Johns River.

If you're at a Southbank hotel, the St. Johns River Taxi is always an option.

RV City

Spaces are sold out and reservations were assigned on a first-come, first served basis. RV City will open at Lot E beginning at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and those holding reservations must arrive by Thursday at 5 p.m. or lose their spots.

RVs owners towing cars must park the smaller vehicles in Lot G, at an additional charge. Auto parking is on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information and waitlist options and additional vehicle parking, please email events@coj.net.

City marina

Securing boat slips for arriving at Georgia-Florida via the St. Johns River was the fastest sell-out of the week. Reservations opened at 10 a.m. on Sept. 6 for 90 slips (counting boats that are rafted) and dockmaster Jim Suber said the spots were claimed in less than a minute.

Boats can begin arriving on Thursday morning. Reservations are for three nights but the actual departure on Sunday, like most life on the water, is flexible.

Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame

Four new members will be inducted at the Hall of Fame Luncheon from 12-1:30 p.m. at the TIAA Bank Field East Club. From Georgia will be Folkston native and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Champ Bailey and John Little; and from Florida will be Andre Caldwell and Trey Burton.

Tickets can be purchased at eventbrite.com.

Baseball? On Georgia-Florida week?

Why not? It’s an athletic event and the Gators will be playing the Bulldogs so it’s one more chance to cheer your team and talk trash. Fans can get a preview of their 2023 baseball teams as they face off at 121 Financial Ballpark at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.

UF is coming off a 44-24 season and UGA went 36-23. But the Gators, even in an exhibition, will be thirsting for a bit of revenge: Georgia has won the last four regular-season meetings and beat Florida 8-5 in last year’s exhibition to square the October series at one game apiece. The Gators won 5-3 in 2019, with the game put on hold in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com.

'A banana threw up'

One Georgia-Florida tradition that isn't within the boundaries of Duval County happens the day before the game: Frat Beach, a party on St. Simons Island East Beach at which police estimate has drawn as many as 8,000 people in the past.

It started as a social event for University of Georgia students to gather on the beach on St. Simons Island, regardless of the weather, for a day-long party. Over time, it's come to include students from Georgia Southern and other colleges -- and a fair amount of high school students, prompting police to begin cracking down on underage drinking several years ago.

Many of the students wear Halloween costumes, which can lead to humorous moments. On one afternoon in 2017, police had to guide a student dressed as a hot dog to paramedics when he became sick.

"The hot dog had too much sauce," observed a police officer.

Former Times-Union reporter Terry Dickson also took note of another student's costume and the effects of alcohol.

"A banana threw up on the sand," he reported.

Glynn County banned drinking on the beach two years ago but being college students, they find a way.

Frat Beach has been such a binge fest that some students have taken to writing their hotel and room numbers on their arms so someone can get them back if they pass out in the sand.

It’s all in the name

Jacksonville is supposed to be neutral ground since it began hosting the game on an annual basis in 1933 and the city recognizes that by rotating the name of the game.

During even-numbered years, Georgia is the home team and the game is called Georgia-Florida on an official basis. In odd-numbered years, Florida is the home team and it’s Florida-Georgia.

Of course, the city understands it can’t police the situation in polite conversation between fans, so if you’re a Gator, it’s likely always going to be Florida-Georgia and the reverse for Bulldogs.

There’s also a numbers game

Florida fans are celebrating a nice round number this year. According to school records, this is the 100th meeting against the Bulldogs (with UGA leading the series 53-44-2).

Be our guest, Georgia fans might say. We did this last year.

Florida dates the beginnings of the rivalry to 1915, when the Gators lost to the Bulldogs 39-0 in Jacksonville. But Georgia claims it began in 1904 when the Dawgs beat the Florida Agricultural College in Lake City 52-0.

Florida’s history says the university wasn’t created until the legislature passed the Buckman Act in 1905, and the first football team came in 1906.

Neither side cares for the other’s version of history so if you’re a Florida fan, by all means, celebrate the centennial edition of the game.

Georgia’s feelings can be summed up by school sports historian Dan Magill who wrote about the 1904 game, “that's where Florida was back then. We can't help it if they got run out of Lake City.”

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Georgia-Florida: Annual invasion of Gators and Bulldogs begins