| Rise and Fall of Spring Break How MTV made Daytona Beach the Spring Break capital of the world, and why the city booted the channel. Today's Spring Break is a shadow of the monster event of 20 years ago. 1989 Spring Break: A look back at the year that left Daytona Beach reeling |
The sun beamed down as hundreds of Spring Breakers in bikinis crammed in front of the Bandshell to hear Mr. Mister and Starship.
It was 1986. Daytona Beach was hopping with MTV broadcasting from the beach.
There I stood with my friends in the second row. We not only skipped our college classes from the then Daytona Beach Community College, but we got there early to get a premier seat.
The four or five of us held a sign that stretched across reading "Hey, Mr. Mister."
It was technically the first concert I'd ever attended. I remember smiling from ear to ear when he looked right at us and I snapped a photo. I later enlarged that photo to an 8 by 10.
My favorite songs were "Kyrie" and "Broken Wings."
It was the first of many concerts to follow as I interned at I-100 radio station in Ormond Beach and got to go backstage meeting bands that I didn't really know.
Growing up in Port Orange, the beach was always our playground, but even more so at Spring Break.
In 1989, I ventured out to get the full college experience as a senior at the University of Florida. I wrote stories and took photos for the Campus Page of the Gainesville Sun for a journalism class my last semester. It was a dream assignment for a college student. I positioned myself in the front row, once again, for the Daryl Hall and John Oates concert.
The crowds were beyond belief compared to today. I got special permission to park at a restaurant since the day earlier I spent three hours in bumper to bumper traffic on the beachside trying to find parking. I had to drive back to my parents' house in Port Orange to watch John Stamos from "Full House" and formerly "General Hospital" on MTV because I couldn't get to the beach to see him in person.
The crowds were beyond belief compared to today. I got special permission to park at a restaurant since the day earlier I spent three hours in bumper to bumper traffic on the beachside trying to find parking. I had to drive back to my parents' house in Port Orange to watch John Stamos from "Full House" and formerly "General Hospital" on MTV because I couldn't get to the beach to see him in person.I wrote in the news article that I was excited to finally be the legal drinking age of 21, but don't remember ever going to the clubs drinking. My friends would say I was "the good one."
I also wrote how students rode up and down the beach with video cameras (not the digital ones) filming people in "flourescent bathing suits, G-strings and spandex shorts." It was the days of big hair, tank tops and acid washed jeans.
Several Daytona Beach residents, some who I grew up with, were quoted as saying it was the busiest Spring Break yet. Beachside residents reported their yards decked with beer cans from Spring Breakers roaming A1A.
Just weeks earlier, I interviewed the first person to fall from a hotel balcony in 1989. He luckily survived, but with a fractured shoulder, back and hip. The 21-year-old Indiana resident had been leaning over the balcony at about 4:30 a.m. and looking at the ocean when he lost his balance and fell. He said his accident was caused "by stupidity from drinking too much."
His advice to other students from his hospital bed at Halifax Medical Center was basically, "don't be stupid."
What is even more unbelievable, is that I still today have the original stories tucked away and the black and white negatives from the Hall and Oates concert.
Photos by Deborah Circelli.
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