Over the weekend, 4000 revelers took to tubes of varying sizes and set up shop on the Sacramento-area American River for an afternoon billed as ‘Rafting Gone Wild.’ But instead of just the good booze-and-bikini fueled kind of wild, the event descended into a series of brawls.

According to authorities, about 50 people started fighting on the river’s beach area. “[They were] beating each other with paddles or rocks and hurling stones at fire and rescue boats,” Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Dept. deputy chief Scott Cockrum said.

“It started out fairly reasonable, but as the day went on, the drunkenness and the fights increased with them,” explained park ranger Randy Lewis.

All in all, 12 people were arrested. That’s up from nine last year, which was the first time the event took place.

This year’s ‘Rafting Gone Wild’ was deliberately held the weekend after the Fourth of July to avoid a holiday ban on alcohol.

Given the negative press coverage stemming from the fights, a third annual ‘Rafting Gone Wild’ is now very much in jeopardy. Check out more photos from the controversial event below.

Our invite must have been lost in the mail.

Gone wild
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Rafting gone wild
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Gone wild
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