The Corey Worthington Effect is in full force once again with a birthday ‘kickback’ for a bloke named Adrian in California went bonkers viral on TikTok, resulting in literal thousands of people showing up to Huntington Beach and utter chaos unfolding.
I’m not talking about the “oh no there’s beer on the couch Mum’s gonna be pissed off” kinda chaos, I mean “over 150 people arrested and people setting off fireworks in the middle of the street” levels of chaos.
This is apparently what the end result of ‘Adrian’s Kickback’ looked like.
https://www.tiktok.com/@liamtheimpaler/video/6965373381222894854?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeednews.com%2Farticle%2Folivianiland%2Fadrians-kickback-tiktok-arrests-huntington-beach&referer_video_id=6965373381222894854&refer=embed
To take a few steps back (because this is like the TikTok version of that record scratch “bet you’re wondering how I got here” meme), this apparently all started when 17-year-old Adrian Lopez made an event for his birthday, which found its way to TikTok and took off like a rocket.
In an interview with The New York Times, Adrian said it was only meant for his school mates, but his friend Yahir Hernandez chucked it on Snapchat and TikTok to try and get more people to turn up to Huntington Beach. Something about the invite hit different, because it landed on the For You page, became a meme, and the #adrianskickback hashtag racked up close to 280 million views in a week.
YouTubers and other TikTok personalities picked up on the now-viral gathering, and decided to head along for content. Other attendees travelled to California from all over the United States to be a part of what was being seen as the ‘event of the year’ – with some one car of people apparently drove 15 hours just to attend.
@funnykey123 Hit us up with plans🌴🌴#adrianskickbackparty #adrianskickback #funnykey #trending #foryou
Hell, even Lil Uzi Vert reportedly showed up at the beach.
@goyardshawty
Just, absolute chaos.
Lol TikTok took the video down. Last night at Adrians kickback in Huntington Beach #adrianskickback #Cali pic.twitter.com/dluoNYm7OD
— Jeryn (@GizmoJA) May 23, 2021
YouTuber Steezy Kane – who has over 3 million subscribers, mind you – went to Adrian’s Kickback and documented what he saw. Someone brought a cake, someone else brought their baby (???), others let off fireworks, Steezy jumped off the beach’s pier and crowdsurfed.
This is some pure, unadulterated power of the Internet, people.
Huntington Beach police responded to the mass gathering and and allegedly fired off rubber bullets. At one point the crowd scattered when fireworks were being set off, presumably because it sounded like gunshots.
The New York Times reported that when Adrian’s initial birthday event went viral, he started speaking with people within the events industry, and ended up reorganising a fully ticketed “official event” for a secret location in L.A. – which was also canceled before it even began, forcing refunds to be issued.
The cherry on top of all of this? Apparently Adrian didn’t tell his parents about any of it.
“My parents don’t know and they’re going to find out,” he said.
“So, Mom and Dad, I’m sorry but I don’t know what to do.”
I can’t imagine he’s going to forget about this birthday anytime soon, to be honest.
