GALVESTON, TX Beach Party Weekend, an annual party for college-age black students here, is estimated to have drawn about 75,000 people.That was far fewer than the 150,000 some had predicted would come to the party which ended Sunday, the Houston Chronicle reported in its Monday edition.
“Gas is too much,” said Sophia Pickney, 34, who drove from Killeen with three friends to attend the event. “That probably stopped some people.”
Law enforcement officers reported no major incidents, said city spokeswoman Janet Cohen. “It was a good weekend,” she said.
“It’s been real straight,” said Derrick Franklin, 27, of Baton Rouge, La. “I’ll be back.”
Though his sales were only “fair to mild, partly cloudy,” Carl Williams, a T-shirt and key-chain vendor from Atlanta, wasn’t giving up.
East Beach manager Allen Flores said attendance there was between 5,000 and 6,000 people, which is light compared with previous Beach Party Weekends.
Lt. Peter Davis of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office beach patrol said that people who came to the event seemed more interested in cruising on Seawall Boulevard than going to the beach.
Cindy O’Donnell, property manager at the Ramada Limited, told The Galveston County Daily News for its Monday edition that business isn’t what it used to be.
This year, the hotel reserved three of its five floors for Beach Party guests, she said. The remaining floors were reserved for guests arriving in Galveston for another event.
Last year, the hotel sold out almost four floors. In past years, the entire five-floor hotel would sell out.
“It’s slow,” O’Donnell said. “That’s why we closed two floors, because it’s just not producing what it used to.”