Remember when we could *checks notes* leave the house and see other people? Yeah, me neither. But today, I was reminded that this weekend marks the 10th anniversary of quite possibly the most iconic party of all time: Kate’s Birthday Party in Adelaide.
Although we’d all love to throw a party this weekend, I can’t help but shed a tear for poor ol’ Kate Miller, who should be celebrating her birthday by throwing another quiet shindig with 72,000 attendees.
So, in lieu of the party our queen Kate deserves, I thought we could all take a little stroll down memory lane at the event that changed Facebook forever.
Facebook events are, and always have been, a great way to tell all of your mates about your upcoming gathering. But as we all know, you’ve gotta make that shit private or you’ll end up with a Kate’s Birthday Party saga on your hands.
It was Saturday May 1, 2010 in the city of churches and *really* big silver balls. What started out as a small gathering of friends turned into the hottest party in town at “Our Apartment,” or so it seemed.
The event was created on April 24, 2010 by serial online prank king David Thorne (under the alias of our queen, Kate Miller). According to SMH, the event amassed a whopping 5,000 attendees within 10 minutes, growing to 60,000 within 24 hours.
“WTF?????????? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE? WHY ARE THERE 10000 PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN INVITED?????? THIS IS A PRIVATE PARTY AT OUR APARTMENT,” the event description was altered to read.
By the time Thorne unveiled the event as his latest hoax, a staggering 72,000 people had clicked “attending” to the local Adelaide shindig. The huge virtual crowd even prompted IRL police officers to stand by on Adelaide’s North St in preparation for a riot-sized group, the Adelaide Advertiser reported at the time.
But despite the hefty guest list, only a handful of people actually tried to attend Kate’s Birthday Party, which hits painfully close to home for many of us who have tried to throw a party.
But it turns out the whole thing was David Thorne’s way of teaching us all that you’ve got precisely fuck all privacy on social media.
“It’s like throwing a pebble into a pond and watching thousands of people jump in after it,” he told news.com.au at the time.
“An invite to a private event takes approximately three minutes to create on Facebook and the button to mark it as private is easily skipped.”
Before the days of Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us, there was Kate’s Birthday Party, the original meme Facebook event. Ahh, if only David knew that we’d still be “attending” dumb meme events like the Area 51 Raid and Wall Of Death When The Veronicas Play Untouched At Good Things (which turned out to be a real thing) a full decade later.
Kate’s Birthday Party will go down in history. One day, your grandkids will sit down in front of your rocking chair and ask you to recite the story of where YOU were on the eve of the infamous Kate’s Birthday Party.
Happy Birthday Kate (David Thorne), here’s hoping you can knock back a few cold ones on Hindley Street soon.
