What started off as a half-joking, wholesome TikTok by user Adrian Lopez hoping to attract a few locals to his birthday ‘kickback’, has turned into an insane party attended by hundreds at Huntington Beach, California, on May 21.
The trend started innocuously enough, with TikTok user ‘adrian.lopez517’ suggesting that people come along to a birthday party at Huntington Beach.
In the now-deleted video, it seemed like what Adrian was going for was a pretty chilled gathering at a fire pit, starting at 7:30 pm. But, of course, this is the internet, so naturally, people took it to the next level.
As of now, the tag ‘adrianskickback’ has 123.4 million views of TikTok, while over 50,000 tweets were made about “adrian”, making him trend on Twitter.
As anticipation for the “kickback” grew, hilarious memes started going viral all over social media, and ‘Adrian’s Kickback’ even started trending on Twitter.
From partygoers anticipating having to tell their mom why they had to go to this stranger’s party, to people hoping that they and their squad will be the center of attention.
me trying to explain to my mom how i know adrian and how i have to go to his kickback pic.twitter.com/qqo4FKdjmz
— mei🎀🧸💗 (@mamiasfmei) May 22, 2021
The trend even caught the attention of star Skai Jackson, who asked her Twitter followers if they’d be attending Adrian’s Kickback, while Lionsgate, the makers of the Bad Neighbours movies, couldn’t resist making a meme of their own.
Y’all goin to Adrian’s kickback tomorrow?
— Skai (@skaijackson) May 22, 2021
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But, as California residents found out, Adrian’s kickback was more than just an internet trend.
At the same time, the mysterious Adrian himself was nowhere to be found (he even seemed to delete his TikTok account), which didn’t stop people from all over the US making good on their RSVP and flocking to Huntington Beach.
https://www.tiktok.com/@hopemyfamwontfindme/video/6964431118292520197?sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6961007665544300038&is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=0
One TikTok user, aptly named ‘hopemyfanwontfindme’, even revealed that she was driving over four hours from Vegas to attend the event.
TikToks from the event show that Adrian’s event wasn’t as much of a ‘kickback’ as it was a full-on party, with Huntington Police Department making good on their earlier Twitter promises and “strictly enforcing all applicable laws” to shut down the event.
https://twitter.com/ben_wwh/status/1395985881350115330
This isn’t the first time an internet meme led to a full offline event. In April, following a 2020 meme about everyone with the name Josh meeting in a remote location to fight to be the “one true Josh”, hundreds of Joshes showed up Middle Creek armed with pool noodles to battle it out, with five-year-old “Little Josh” from Lincoln eventually emerging victorious.