In each of the past two years, spring break revelry in South Beach took a sour turn during the third weekend in March. Last year, Miami Beach declared a midnight curfew following a pair of shootings on Ocean Drive. In 2021, police fired pepper-spray balls, and SWAT teams were deployed to enforce an 8 p.m. curfew.
City officials are hoping new programming and learning from the past will help lead to a calmer atmosphere this year. But on Thursday night, as large crowds took over parts of Ocean Drive, the potential for problems was evident — though there were no major incidents.
Early in the night, police had closed Ocean Drive to cars below Eighth Street, where the biggest crowds had gathered. When police later sought to reopen the area to traffic around 10 p.m., numerous officers struggled to usher people onto the sidewalk.
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Police on ATVs and in patrol cars inched toward the crowd with sirens blaring, ordering people out of the street via a loudspeaker. They ultimately approached people on foot, which proved more successful. By around 10:30 p.m., traffic was flowing again — albeit slowly — and a tense atmosphere had eased.
Officers tried to disperse crowds “as slowly and methodically as possible to avoid tension and any issues,” Miami Beach police spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez said.
“When you have that large cluster of folks, it makes it even more difficult to control and ensure everyone’s safety,” Rodriguez said.
Earlier in the evening, around 8 p.m., hundreds of people near Eighth Street started running in a brief moment of panic and confusion after a fight broke out in front of the News Cafe. A few minutes later, the situation had resolved and the crowd was back to singing and dancing to music blaring from handheld speakers.
“We’re all here for the same reason — to have fun,” said one spring breaker, who declined to give his name.
Jabari, 21, a college student in Oklahoma who grew up in Orlando, said police weren’t taking away from that experience on Thursday.
“They’re directing traffic,” he said. “They’re doing their job out here.”
Ocean Drive will be closed to cars from Fifth to 13th streets for the rest of the weekend for Carnaval Miami — a popular street festival run by the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana — under the name “Art on the Drive.” The three-day event will feature music on three stages, arts and crafts and entertainment for children.
This weekend’s programming will also include a professional beach volleyball tournament in a pop-up stadium on the sand, along with a 1,000-foot inflatable obstacle course, called “The Monster,” in Lummus Park.
Miami Beach officials, including Mayor Dan Gelber, have said they would prefer for spring breakers to go somewhere else entirely, but that they hope programming will help create a safer atmosphere.
“It’s impossible to know what tomorrow brings, but we’re prepared to do everything we can to control the entertainment area,” Gelber said last week.
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Large crowds and some tension in South Beach as big spring break weekend begins - Yahoo! Voices
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