Melbourne beach party shut down by Facebook-savvy police

An Australia Day party at Melbourne's St Kilda beach has been cancelled by organisers after police crashed the Facebook event.

The planned 'Triple J Hottest 100 party', celebrating the radio station's top tracks of the past year, had 6,000 people attending on Facebook as of Friday, with another 19,000 interested in going. But Victoria Police managed to have the event cancelled without even leaving their keyboards with a quick post to the page warning they'd be coming along too.

"Hi Jai and Clint. This is Victoria Police. We know this party is not sanctioned by Triple J, so we're assuming you haven't got any permits from Port Phillip Council either?," the social media savvy coppers wrote. "If that's the case, we'll pay you a visit on Australia Day and let's hope we don't spoil your party!"

Maybe they were just keen to join in?

Triple J hosts Matt and Alex offered a tongue-in-cheek "sanction" on social media afterwards, but the event's description was updated to say it was no longer taking place, upsetting a few punters' plans, and summed up by Josh Holland:

"IT'S AUSTRALIA DAY, IT WOULD BE UN-AUSTRALIAN IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE A MAD AF PARTY."

As much as we hate to see a party cancelled, we're pretty sure everyone would have ended up bailing for Fatboy Slim's beach set at the same spot anyway.

Scott Carbines is Mixmag's Australian Online News Editor, follow him on Twitter

[Image: Purple Sneakers]