27 arrests, video of street fights: SC beach town’s annual Mardi Gras canceled
One video shows a woman kick a man in the face as he holds someone down in the street.
“Get you a girl who will knock a bouncer out for you,” Brandon Rybak tweeted with the video.
Another video shows a fistfight inside: “This happened when we got upstairs,” Rybak wrote. And yet a third video Rybak shared on Twitter, this time at night, shows two people grappling on the sidewalk in Folly Beach.
“This place is wild,” he said.
Folly Beach, South Carolina’s annual Folly Gras celebration — in its 11th year — ended with 27 arrests and 34 citations over the weekend, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.
The Folly Association of Business told the newspaper 11,000 people, a record, came out for the Mardi Gras celebration near Charleston.
But this will be the last year for Folly Gras, according to the Moultrie News.
“We want to thank all of the people who came out to Folly Gras to have fun and we apologize for those few people who don’t respect our community and have to ruin everyone else’s good time,” the business association’s president Steve Carroll said, according to the the Charleston City Paper.
“Honestly, we feel that Folly Gras has essentially outgrown its venue; the venue being our quaint little beach town. At this point, it is not what we need for the city, the businesses or the community so we’re going to put it to rest,” Carroll said, according to the City Paper.
“Regardless of our efforts, Folly Gras seems to attract some unsavory people,” Carroll said, the Charleston Regional Business Journal reports.
“The events we host are vital for our business community and allow us to do some great things, like funding expensive fireworks shows that benefit the Charleston area as a whole. We need the events but we’re determined to find a better way to celebrate Folly Beach than what Folly Gras has become,” Carroll said, the business journal reports.
This year’s celebration was particularly bad, the town’s mayor Tim Goodwin told WCSC.
“It’s very bad we have to put up with those people at a festival,” Folly Beach Mayor Tim Goodwin told WCSC. “They did a good job trying to organize but like a hurricane, you plan for the worst, but it’s worse than what you plan for.”
As for the woman who kicked a man on video, Folly Beach Police Chief Andrew Gilreath said Taylor Nealey surrendered to law enforcement Tuesday, WCIV reported.
The 22-year-old was charged with second-degree assault and battery and was released from the Al Cannon Detention Center after posting her $10,000 bond, jail records show.
Video shows the woman identified as Nealey kicking the guard twice, once then she was pushed away before returning with another blow. The second kick apparently knocked him out, according to WCSC.
This story was originally published February 26, 2019 at 9:39 AM with the headline "27 arrests, video of street fights: SC beach town’s annual Mardi Gras canceled."
