The Scooby Doo Crew (SDC) should be feeling great.
After all, the production group that provides sound and electronic services for raves, parties and the like will celebrate its 15th anniversary April 16, and the popularity of its parties has been on the rise since the crew was formed.
Unfortunately, after something of a mishap in Brazoria County this past weekend, its members aren't in the best of moods.
"We do a beach party every year," says Kelly McCann, a longtime member of SDC. "We started throwing free parties, and... another crew asked if they could set up. And then the following year, three other sound systems set up. And within a four-year period, there were over 20 sound systems on a seven-mile stretch of beach.
"Well, it got up to 20,000 people," McCann says. "And the cops used to be OK with it - in fact, I have newspaper articles where they said the beach was cleaner than when we got there - but when it got to that level, they weren't cool with it anymore, and pretty much ran us off."
The group's first party was on Bolivar Island, but it grew exponentially, which is why the group is always relocating, jumping from beach to beach and county to county.
"So we've been using different beaches," McCann says. "This is the first year that we used Quintana Beach, and we've been keeping it very low promotion with only one sound system and were only planning on having 300 to 500 people the past few years.
"This one however, even compared to the 20,000 one, had a string of violence," McCann says, figuring five or six fights broke out in only five minutes. "It got really bad, to the point that I actually turned the music off in hopes that they would leave."
There were numerous break-ins to cars and, coupled with the fights, McCann and the rest of the SDC were worried not just about the well-being of their guests, but being seen as the catalyst for the evening's problems.
"The cops came 10 minutes later," he says. "We're used to being shut down whenever they find us out there, but these cops were totally cool. I told them what was going on, and they were like, 'We're all right with what you're doing; in fact, we wish there was more of this out here.'"
