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Emmet Blaney, 19, charged after being accused of publicizing unauthorized party on Fairfield shoreline
Joe SommerladFriday 21 November 2025 13:52 GMT
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A student has been arrested for promoting a fake “SantaCon” party in Fairfield, Connecticut, that attracted more than 600,000 views online.
Emmet Blaney, 19, a Fairfield University sophomore from Massapequa, New York, is accused of publicizing the event on a private residential beach without the homeowners’ permission.
He was charged with criminal attempt to commit disorderly conduct and third-degree criminal attempt to commit criminal trespass and is scheduled to appear at Bridgeport Superior Court on December 8.
open image in galleryEmmet Blaney, 19, a Fairfield University sophomore from Massapequa, who has been arrested and charged for promoting an unauthorized SantaCon party (Fairfield Police)An account under the username @fairfieldsantacon had publicized the event in a series of posts on Instagram, according to The Fairfield Mirror, calling it “The Mardi Gras of the Northeast” and scheduling it for 11 am to 5 pm on December 5, giving the address as either 445 Fairfield Road or 2 Lighthouse Point and advising attendees to arrive by train as a cheaper alternative to Uber.
On Tuesday, the account abruptly notified followers: “Fairfield santacon has been cancelled and moved to jennings beach for students only. we’re sorry for everyone who was planning on coming from other schools, you will not be able to make it to the beach.”
open image in galleryOne of the online fliers promoting the event (TikTok/Fairfield Santacon)That message appeared five days after Fairfield University announced it would host the only official SantaCon party in the area for students and their guests, and that it would be a private, ticketed event.
Fairfield Police Department has since been at pains to underline that the state will not be hosting any public SantaCon gatherings this year, following problems with overcrowding and crime last year.
“In 2024, Fairfield experienced significant challenges when thousands of college-aged individuals arrived in the beach area, creating safety hazards, quality-of-life issues, and an unsustainable strain on emergency services,” FPD officers wrote on Facebook.
open image in galleryMen dressed as a Santa Claus drinking beer at a bar in Brooklyn, New York City, as part of SantaCon (Getty)“As a residential beach community, Fairfield is not designed to accommodate large, unregulated crowds. Following last year’s difficulties, the Fairfield Police Department, town officials, and Fairfield University collaborated to develop a more controlled and responsible approach for 2025. Much of Fairfield’s shoreline consists of private property and private beach associations, which are not open to the general public.
“Recently, unauthorized social media accounts have circulated false and misleading information about SantaCon occurring at locations other than the sanctioned Fairfield University event. These posts are inaccurate and are being reviewed by law enforcement.”
FPD Chief Michael Paris said, “Our priority is protecting our residents, our neighborhoods, and everyone’s safety. If you are not invited to the private event, do not come to Fairfield expecting a public SantaCon celebration. There isn’t one.”
First Selectman Christine Vitale added, “If you are planning to travel to Fairfield for this event, don’t. We are putting extensive plans in place so that our neighborhoods or emergency services are not overwhelmed. I want our residents to know that our police will be there and will be looking for all violations of the law, including trespassing.”
However, several students have reacted with outrage to Blaney’s arrest on the anonymous platform Fizz, according to the Mirror.
open image in gallerySantaCon was originally conceived as performance art but has become a 'reviled bar crawl' (Getty)“Where is freedom of speech. FREE EMMET,” one person wrote, while another urged people to “flood the comment sections” of the FPD’s Facebook page to protest.
The first SantaCon was staged in San Francisco in 1994 and was inspired by a radical Danish theater group who, in 1974, had staged an anarchist event in Copenhagen in which men dressed as Santa Claus stole items from the shelves of department stores and handed them out to members of the public as “presents” in order to satirize the rampant consumerism of the holiday season, resulting in their arrest.
San Francisco’s Cacophony Group aimed to recreate the spoof Christmas event, and it spread quickly to other U.S. cities, beginning with Portland in 1996, Seattle in 1997, and then Los Angeles and New York in 1998, with thousands of costumed participants taking to the streets to party.
However, in the process, the event became associated with drunken revelry, vandalism, and public urination, with The Village Voice complaining in December 2014 that it had devolved from “joyful performance art” into a “reviled bar crawl.”
