Crowds were mild at this year’s mid-week Six Man Volleyball Tournament, reaching an estimated 6,000 people on Tuesday, drastically down from last year’s 60,000.
“We have a nice volleyball tournament without the adjacent drunk-fest going on,” said Mayor Wayne Powell, who attended the event.
From a policing standpoint, officials said the event was controlled and manageable. “It’s not chaotic,” said Manhattan Beach Officer Stephanie Martin. “It doesn’t seem like it’s a powder keg…you’re on edge because you just don’t know when it’s going to go.”
But members of the Twittersphere were active in their dissent of the midweek event. “6 Man is today…and no one cares. Thanks a lot, Manhattan Beach. #SmackfestWasCoolThough,” one Manhattan Beach resident tweeted.
One attendee complained about the security guards checking bags and patrolling the event. “It felt like an airport,” she said.
By late afternoon on Tuesday, there’d been zero six-man related arrests, said Manhattan Beach Police Chief Eve Irvine. The police had contacts with people – a 17-year-old intoxicated girl whose mother approached on a bicycle and took her daughter home after the paramedics treated her, and a couple other intoxicated people who were sent home with friends. “It’s just a very manageable crowd,” Irvine said.
One woman asked Martin if event-goers had to be over 21. “I’m like, ‘If that was you on a Saturday last year trying to go down there with your little kid, I would’ve said turn around and go the other way.’ Now you can go down there with your family,” she said.
“It’s just like the old days,” said resident Jackie Mae.
Last year, police made 35 arrests throughout the city over Six Man weekend – 23 for individuals drunk in public, and the remainder ranging from DUIs to thefts.
The Six Man committee will reconvene to see what worked and what needs to be changed for next year, Powell said. “I’m not sure it’ll go back to the weekend,” Powell said. “Word will get out and we’ll go back to where we started.”
Along with hosting the event mid-week, the Manhattan Beach City Council put restrictions on short-term home rentals, prohibiting individuals from renting out their patio without renting their entire residence or renting the property to commercial businesses or corporations. In addition, renters weren’t allowed to charge a fee to enter the property.
The city didn’t receive any permit applications for short-term home rentals, and notorious party locations and amplified sound wasn’t a problem for police this year, Irvine said. In fact, police witnessed alcohol and speaker deliveries to potential party houses and sent them away. “We’re like, ‘Stop, time out, go back the other way,’” Irvine said.
Shellback Tavern owner Bob Beverly said sales on Tuesday were double a normal Saturday – much better than he’d expected. “We don’t normally have people coming in as groups as 8 o’clock in the morning to start off their day with Bloody Marys,” he said.
His record business day was the Saturday of last year’s tournament. “I would gladly give that up to have a normal weekend,” Beverly said, adding that usually the bar has to deal with broken televisions, rowdy crowds threatening the bar’s doormen, and jammed plumbing.
[scrollGallery id=”444″]Along with decreased crowds and arrests, the tournament saw a significant drop in registered teams. Sixty-five teams competed this year, almost half of last year’s 120 team registrations.
“I would be so naïve if I would say that there haven’t been people who’ve contacted me…‘Why can’t this be on weekend? We like party atmosphere, we like all the large crowds.’ I get that, but I have to look at what’s in best interest of the city, and the safety of our businesses and residents,” Irvine said.
UPDATE: There were four six-man related arrests on Tuesday evening, Martin said. Three adult males were arrested for being drunk in public and one juvenile female for resisting arrest. One of the males was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon, in what appeared to be a domestic dispute, Martin said. He is still in custody and the other three individuals were released with a court date.
