JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — A new beach weekend event reminiscent of the Orange Crush Festival, is expected to bring in "over 5,000 people," mainly college students from varying locations to Jacksonville Beach on Labor Day weekend, according to the event's flyer.
The three organizers of 'HBCU Beachday': Kimaan Stringer, Jarrod Gunn and Tyree Jackson, are all from different cities in Florida, yet have came together as one to make the event happen. But, Gunn says it was Stringer who made the idea come to life.
"It was always in my head that I wanted to do something like this," Stringer told First Coast News earlier this month. "What happened was, is that when the football schedules dropped for all the HBCUs in Florida, I recognized that FAMU, BCU and Edward Waters [University] all had the same bye week. So, it kind of just came about like that and I talked to Tyree [Jackson] because he's in Jacksonville, and so, that's how that really strong Tallahassee-Jacksonville connection came."
Gunn told First Coast News that Jacksonville Beach wasn't in the original plan for the location of where the event would be held.
"We thought we were going to do it at Panama City Beach," Gunn said.
The three organizers mentioned that the event's debut last year didn't fail, despite dealing with rain showers.
"That's what is crazy about it, it was still successful even though there was rain," Jackson said. "People still drove from Tallahassee, Miami, Orlando and Daytona Beach."
Florida A&M University, Bethune-Cookman University, Savannah State University, Florida Memorial University, Edwards Waters University, Fort Valley State University and Delaware State University were all part of the list of historically Black colleges and universities represented in which students traveled from for last year's event.
Stringer and Jackson acknowledges the possibility of other college students who attend schools outside of HBCUs, could be coming into town for the event during the busy holiday weekend as well.
"Yes, the main goal is HBCU [students] but, we're getting everyone involved," said Jackson. "We're not trying to close it off, anyone can come hang out that weekend, we just want the positive vibes. We're not here to run wild."
Despite the given name, 'HBCU Beachday' is an event that'll stretch across the entire Labor Day weekend, according to the event's flyer. It will first begin with a block party on Sept. 1 at 10 p.m., a tailgate for the Edward Waters University versus the Florida Memorial University football game at 4 p.m. on Sept. 2, then a football game after party on the same day at 10 p.m. The weekend ends with the main beach event on Sept. 3 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and follows with an after party as well at 10 p.m.
Beachgoers who are expected to come from different cities statewide and even out-of-state, should know that Jackson has partnered with a local hotel to provide discounts for students staying throughout the weekend.
"Really what came about for the hotel, was that the club owners [of the venue in which the two after parties will be held], also own the hotel," said Jackson. "I explained to them what we had going on and then they basically was just showing love and said, 'Oh alright, this is what we'll do for y'all,' because they already see how it is going to be and the expectations we have for it."
The discount will only be eligible for beachgoers and not the general public as well as it can only be applied to the Ramada by Wyndham hotel, located at 9150 Baymeadows Rd. on Jacksonville's southside. A 30 percent off promo code will be released on the event's Instagram page at an unknown date and time and would need to be entered in at check-out when booking a room at the hotel.
Jackson says he and his co-organizers are also in the process of working with Uber to provide a discount code on rides for the beachgoers as well.
"I'm just waiting on them now just to get confirmation back on the code because I'm seeing a whole detailed document explaining how everything is working and then I had to explain to them why they should give us a code," Jackson said. "I basically just preached to them that we didn't want to have people drunk driving so, I feel like us getting a discount on Uber would really help on having less car accidents and less problems at all to be honest."
Following the Orange Crush Festival's cancellation of one of their main events planned back in June due to a permit problem, Stringer says this is a problem being addressed by the three organizers in avoidance of having the same effect taking place.
"We are in the process of getting a permit," Stringer said. "I think one thing that'll help us get approved, is that we are getting local businesses a part of it. We're working on getting all these types of different sponsors so, we want to make it as organized as possible. And when we do take it to the city, we're like 'Hey look, we're helping out the local businesses in the area.'"
To stay updated with information on the HBCU Beachday event, follow @hbcubeachday on Instagram.
