Despite a decent Saturday night crowd inside and protesters outside, the Girls Gone Wild-themed party at McCrobie’s went on without much fuss or fanfare Saturday night.

Party-goers David Graham and Ben Perren said they came specifically to see what Girls Gone Wild, whose bus arrived in Rome Saturday afternoon, had to offer to the patrons of the busy bar.

What they found when they arrived were the protesters, clad in “Gone Wild for Jesus Christ” T-shirts.

“It’s a bunch of nonsense,” Graham said.

Others in the bar, like Dale Hawkins III, said they came for Girls Gone Wild, too.

Before coming into the bar, Hawkins was able to get a T-shirt from the protesters outside that he wore proudly inside the bar.

“I told them Jesus Christ gives to the needy, and I needed one of those shirts, so they gave it to me,” he said.

An estimated 330 people had shown up to the party by 10:15 p.m., according to counters at the door.

The protesters themselves were a group of more than 30 people from area churches, including Eastview Baptist Church, Silver Creek Baptist Church, Words of Faith Tabernacle and the New Grace Church to name a few. They had dwindled to less than 10 after 10 p.m.

Greg Cowart of Eastview Baptist said the group had come to “represent Jesus Christ.”

“People have been real receptive, and they’re respectable too,” he said of the crowd.

One of the protesters, Kenneth Crowe, said he thought the party was immoral.

“I think we’re here to stand up for the morals of the Bible,” he said. “I think the citizens of Rome shouldn’t stand for it. Look what’s happened to Atlanta.”

Melissa Bortz, who stood outside with friends in front of the bar watching the goings-on, said she thought it was interesting to see them outside the bar.

“I’m more interested in the picket group than the party inside,” she said. She said that she wasn’t going inside the bar to see the action.

McCrobie’s attorney, David Guldenschuh, predicted that when people awoke this morning, they would find the fuss over the party had been for nothing.

The protesters outside of the bar were doing othing more than exercising their first amendment rights, he said.

“We have nothing to hide,” he said. “McCrobie’s is here to promote entertainment.”

He said the downtown area Saturday saw a boost from the attention the event drew.

“Downtown is rocking tonight; it ought to be this way every Saturday night,” he said.

“We don’t expect any problems,” said Rome police officer Josh Kerce, who spent his night keeping an eye on the crowd.

Guldenschuh said bar owner Brent McCrobie had no comment on the event.

The Girls Gone Wild production company’s bus toured around Rome. It first rode down Broad Street around 3:45 p.m., dropped some girls off who were holding signs promoting the party and then later picked them back up.

It circled downtown several times during the evening and parked a couple times on Broad Street at Fourth Avenue.

Rome police officers were stationed outside of the bar and two security guards were posted inside for crowd control purposes.

The city’s Alcohol Control Commission voted unanimously Sept. 28 to deny McCrobie’s request to host a Girls Gone Wild promotional event at his 325 Broad St. bar that would have included a visit by the Girls Gone Wild bus.

While the bus did show up in Rome, it spent most of the day circling the Broad Street area and did not park in front of McCrobie’s.

Guldenschuh said earlier that he was confident changes made to the event after the ACC meeting would appease concerns by the city, but the committee won’t meet again until Monday.

McCrobie’s was not listed on the agenda, but City Clerk Joe Smith indicated the police might make a report to the commission about the event.