The music thumped. The young crowd grew. And grew.
That is, until the buzz on social media met a buzz kill on the dunes.
The crowd of mostly local, mostly county students partied on the beach to the beat until Bradenton Beach police stepped up to say no more.
Sound levels at about 2 p.m. March 23 at Coquina Beach were so loud they violated the city noise ordinance, the officers said.
And the music from the large speakers powered by a generator set up in the dunes, which are protected by state law and local ordinance, stopped.
The Manatee County lifeguards estimated the mostly high-school student crowd swelled to 500-600 people before police dispersed the crowd at about 5 p.m.
Police reported seeing no fights and only the remnants of a fight between some female attendees in the park area.
BBPD Detective Sgt. Lenard Diaz said, “For the most part, they weren’t being bad.”
“Shutting the music down, it was because of the safety concern,” he said, adding the noise level threatened to hinder lifeguards in their jobs.
The second annual party at Coquina grew by hundreds of “shares” on Facebook, some students said.
After setting up a perimeter with three patrol cars, Bradenton Beach police warned Manatee High School student Will Mauricette, State College of Florida freshman Jada Guion and others involved in organizing the party about the unlawful noise.
Officers Mike Bazell, Roy Joslin and Tom Ferrara stepped near the dune line to answer inquiries from people in the crowd.
At the lifeguard station, Bazell told Guion, the noise could prevent the lifeguards from hearing a call for help.
Joslin reported people spitting on a police vehicle after the crowd was told to turn the music down.
Diaz said police learned about the spring breakers’ party that morning.
The party came during the escalation of a busy Easter week in Bradenton Beach.
Holiday weekends have been violent in the past, including a triple shooting on Easter 2007.
Fights broke out at Coquina Beach on Memorial Day weekend 2015, as personal watercraft owners were loading trailers.
The potential for holiday violence brought Manatee County Sheriff’s deputies on horses to Coquina on Easter weekend — and about calls 30 were dispatched March 26-27, Diaz said.
MCSO reported no disturbances on the island.
“We actually had a great Easter weekend here,” Diaz said, adding that “even traffic wasn’t bad.”
Sgt. Russell Schnering, head of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office substation in Anna Maria, agreed, noting it was “twice as busy” during the week before Easter.
He reported minor alcohol violations in Bayfront Park, but otherwise “no issues at all.”
In Holmes Beach, Police Chief Bill Tokajer said there were no major incidents to report.