Turnt Island beach bash at Tybee Island was to be second coming of Orange Crush. It wasn't.

Before the Turnt Island beach party on Tybee Island started Saturday, Darron Blaylock, 25, was surrounded by a group of his friends who carried walkie-talkies, a loudspeaker, and a boom box.

“I came here to turn up!” said Blaylock.

Blaylock recently graduated from Georgia Southern and said, “We all work 60 hour weeks, so we’re looking to have fun.”

Blaylock was looking forward to a repeat of Orange Crush, a beach bash held on Tybee in April that he and his friends attended. Turnt Island was billed as a follow-up to Orange Crush, was advertised for the weekend before July 4, and promised to bring more than 10,000 visitors.

But the first day of Turnt Island was hardly that.

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The party consisted of a group of 50 to 100 college-aged students listening to music, dancing and moving from the beach to the South Beach pier and throughout downtown Tybee Island - all while being closely monitored by law enforcement.

Throughout the event, law enforcement and other officials from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, Tybee Island Police, Georgia State Patrol and City of Tybee Code Enforcement have vowed to tamp down the party to prevent incidents such as those seen during Orange Crush, which included fights on the beach, heavy traffic on the roads and a road-rage shooting on U.S. 80 near Fort Pulaski.

Tybee Island Police Chief Tiffany Hayes said the department changed it policing strategy in response to Orange Crush. After the Orange Crush event, Hayes and Tybee Island PD visited the Jacksonville Beach Police Department to find out how to control large crowds during holiday weekends.

From that visit, Tybee Island PD implemented a new strategy: Placing officers in three zones instead of two zones. An officer doesn’t leave his or her zone unless he or she is called to leave the zone, said Hayes.

“[Policing in two zones] spread the zones too thin,” Hayes said. “It’s going good so far.”

Partiers under scrutiny

The 50-person party first congregated on the beach next to the pier around 2:20 p.m. A man carried a boombox over his head. People danced.

But within the first 15 minutes, City of Tybee Code Enforcement officers rolled through on their golf-cart buggies, through the orange cones, and broke up the party. The crowd dispersed.

It wasn’t exactly clear to the partygoers why their partying had to stop. One Tybee Code Enforcement officer issued a ticket to a person for smoking and vaping, which is illegal on Tybee beachers. Another Tybee Code Enforcement officer said partiers were blocking the orange cones, which are set up every weekend so lifeguards can respond to emergency events, such as drownings. One Tybee Island Police officer said the music was too loud.

"They not doing anything criminal, but when they leave the area like this, that's not cool," said Chatham County Sheriff Deputy Gary Taylor. "Just follow the rules."

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The partygoers disagreed.

Sanderic Jones, 22, came to Tybee Island from Baltimore after hearing about the event on Instagram.

“They shut us down because we wanted to have a good time; we're just here to have fun,” said Jones. “They should be here to keep us safe. I don’t think it’s right. If we were fighting, it’d be a different story.”

At 3 p.m., the partygoers filtered off the beach and into a nearby parking lot. Police officers were stationed in th elot, to the group went to a third spot: outside the Sea and Breeze Hotel on Tybrisa Street.

“If you not here, you missing out," Zamiyah Roberts said. "Get lit. We too turnt.”

Coming from Charleston, South Carolina, Roberts said she needed to attend the event because she hadn’t been to the beach for so long and wanted to see her friends.

But soon, with law enforcement closely monitoring them, the event quieted down. The 50-person group splintered into multiple groups.

Sitting outside Spanky’s Beachside at around 3:45 p.m., 20-year-old Tayshon Gordon said he came to Tybee Island from Riceboro, Georgia. Gordon was supposed to be filming Turnt Island for his personal YouTube channel, but the event turned out to be “way, way smaller,” than Orange Crush, which he had attended.

“I’ll do anything to get that paycheck,” said Gordon. “But this event turned out to be not that big.”

But with Turnt Island promoted to continue through Monday, Tybee Island Police are still preparing for a larger turnout.

“We plan for the biggest [turnout], and see where our cards fall,” said Tybee PD Chief Hayes.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Turnt Island beach party Tybee Island wasn't bigger than Orange Crush