Social Media-Driven Pop-Up Party Promoted At The Jersey Shore Gets Shut Down

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — As businesses in Seaside Heights were breaking out tables and stocking up on apparel and game prizes ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, borough officials were in court, seeking to block a planned pop-up party.

The borough was granted an injunction on Tuesday in Ocean County Superior Court against people who were organizing the unauthorized party that had been promoted on TikTok and Snapchat for more than a week, business administrator Christopher Vaz said.

The injunction was being served on people in East Orange and Basking Ridge who were organizing the party, Vaz said.

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to summer all along the Jersey Shore, and there have been years where the weekends have been rowdy, often in part because it coincides with prom season.

Pop-up parties have worsened issues that Seaside Heights has experienced intermittently over the years. In 2024, there were 90 people arrested, including a dozen kids 17 or younger, in the midst of chaos sparked by a false report of shots fired.

There were fights and rowdy behavior in 2023, which led to a curfew then, and multiple issues in 2018 with underage drinking and overdoses at the former club Karma, which has since shut down. In 2012 police dealt with multiple fights to start the weekend.

Seaside Heights instituted a firm curfew and, in an ordinance that took effect in 2024, restricted short-term rentals from April 15 through June 30 by requiring at least two people age 21 or older or one person 25 or older on the premises to curtail post-prom parties.

Vaz said those restrictions and the curfew will be strictly enforced over Memorial Day weekend.
The borough's curfew bans those under 18 from the streets and the boardwalk from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly, with exceptions for minors accompanied by their parents or guardians and those going home from work.

"All minors will be directed to turn around and go home," Vaz said. "We will enforce from the streets and the beach."

In addition, code enforcement officers will be driving around "actively looking for overcrowding and rental age violations in apartments, motels, and rental homes," he said.

"The simple message is this: Dear Parents, Keep your kids home. We’re not babysitting for you. If they cause a problem, you will be held responsible as their parents," Vaz said.

He said Seaside Heights detectives determined the party organizers and shared the information with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, New Jersey State Police, and other law enforcement partners.

Seaside Heights Police Chief Thomas Boyd said the borough will be receiving help from the FBI and the Ocean County Sheriff's Department, along with State Police, to quell any issues quickly and deter bad behavior before it starts.

"I want to make people aware we have the big guns here," Boyd told the Asbury Park Press.

Officials in Seaside Heights — and towns up and down the Jersey Shore — have repeatedly said issues with unruly teenagers have been far worse since 2021, when a state law was signed that authorities say has limited the ability of police to deal with kids who are getting drunk or high and being rowdy and frequently belligerent.

A bill approved by the state Senate and Assembly that would establish the crime of inciting a public brawl — intended to give law enforcement the ability to deal with issues caused by the pop-up parties and belligerent, rowdy behavior — is awaiting another review by Gov. Phil Murphy. Murphy conditionally vetoed the bill on May 8, and it was amended May 15 to address issues raised in the conditional veto.

It would take effect immediately after Murphy signs it.