Boca Bash, with no real organizer, has taken on a life of its own and is back this weekend

BOCA RATON — With no official notice other than a cryptic Facebook and Instagram page, the organizer (or organizers) of the annual Boca Bash have just one reminder for those planning to attend — don’t forget your floaties.

The event sells no tickets and has no public relations or marketing strategy or any advertising firm driving publicity. But once again, Sunday’s event promises to bring thousands crammed onto Lake Boca for a day of boating and boozing in what has mushroomed into Palm Beach County’s unofficial biggest water celebration.

“There is no real organizer for the event,” Boca Raton spokesman Mark Economou wrote in an email to The Palm Beach Post. “This is just something that happens the last Sunday of April.”

What makes it a challenge for both the city and the neighboring The Boca Raton resort is that the event has no affiliation with either, so they can’t do much about the planning.

“Keep in mind, ‘Boca Bash’ is NOT a city event, NOT a city-sponsored event,” Economou said in his email.

Likewise, Elena Corsano, director of media and community relations for The Boca Raton on Lake Boca, told The Palm Beach Post that their leadership had no comments about their plans for the event, other than to remind people that the resort was not affiliated with the event in any capacity.

“There is one person who runs the Facebook page we send our safety messages to that he shares on his page,” Economou wrote.

Aside from policing, Economou and Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer say they do their best to stay in contact with the party’s social-media pages.

Attempts to reach the organizer on both social media platforms were not returned.

The Boca Bash began in 2007 as a birthday party on Lake Boca

The event originally started as a birthday bash for then-local Rockey Rossi, planned by his friends Brad Geisen and Scott McCure in 2007.

The city asked them to cancel the party, which allegedly included hiring the rock band Nickleback to perform. The plans garnered enough attention though, and despite their cancellation, drew dozens of boaters to the lake.

“We just wanted to bring life back to Lake Boca,” Geisen told The Post in 2017, adding that a decade after their first grand party, they kept their personal festivities far more low-key and never envisioned it gaining such traction.

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“We won’t take the boat out there during Boca Bash anymore,” Geisen said in 2017, instead opting to hang at McCure’s lakeside condo.

But the Bash persists and seemingly grows bigger each year with social-media recap videos from 2023 showing scores of boats across the lake, partiers diving right in, dancing and soaking up sun.

During the past few years, about 8,000 boaters have ventured onto Lake Boca Raton, which is a body of water sandwiched between Palmetto Park Road to the north, East Camino Real to the south, The Boca Raton five-star resort to the west and a small strip of land to the east along the Atlantic Ocean.

The spot itself is still a popular hangout for boaters who want to enjoy a quiet weekend on the boat. But the last Sunday in April is anything but quiet.

“(Typical weekends) are very calm and much more family-oriented,” former Boca Raton resident Anthony Pollara said, describing the serenity of the lake when it’s not the landing spot for dozens upon dozens of partiers. “Lake Boca’s beautiful without all that.”

Pollara, 52, said he attended the Bash one year and he described it, in a word, as insanity.

“It’s pretty insane and very crowded,” he said, recalling lots of drinking, topless women and tons of arrests when he went. “Police are pretty strict and make a lot of arrests.”

In 2018, a 32-year-old man drowned at The Boca Bash

Pollara isn’t exaggerating.

The annual lake party has resulted in arrests and massive police patrols and in 2018, the death of a 32-year-old man man along with $45,000 spent on police presence and response to emergency calls.

To monitor the event, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Boca Raton Police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office all have a hand in patrolling.

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“First and foremost, I want people to be safe,” Singer said. “There are plenty of ways to stay safe and still enjoy the water.”

Singer encouraged Boca bashers to take the initiative with personal safety, but the city, as in previous years, is taking its own measures as well. Boca Raton police did not want to share their plans with The Post but said their concerns are the same as previous years — safe boating, making sure people aren’t overcrowding their vessels and no boating under the influence.

And Economou said the city knows all the tricks by now.

“We will also be patrolling area neighborhoods to deter boaters from cutting through yards to find a boat to hop on,” he warned.

He added that several parks won’t be open either Saturday or Sunday because of Boca Bash, including Silver Palm Park, Wild Flower Park and the Docks at Spanish River Park.

“We have to limit access to the boat ramps in other waterfront areas just because of safety and the huge number of people coming,” Singer said.

Like water itself, Singer knows the Bash is coming and can’t be stopped, but he just wants it to be incident-free.

“Be safe, be smart and people will have a better time,” Singer said.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca Bash returns for a wild boating party on Lake Boca Raton Florida