I’ve written stories like this about out of control protests in Portland and Seattle but this weekend something similar happened in my town. We noticed some fireworks were going off downtown this weekend but didn’t know why. It turns out downtown Huntington Beach became a chaotic scene this weekend after a birthday party invitation posted on TikTok went massively viral.

The party, originally posted Wednesday to TikTok as a meetup called “Adrian’s Kickback” by user adrian.lopez517, was intended to have people “pop out n celebrate my bday.” The post went viral throughout the week, spawning a hashtag that was viewed more than 203 million times on the app.

Gatherings formed Friday and Saturday in Huntington Beach, near Los Angeles, and police dispersed crowds both nights.

Police arrested 121 adults and 28 juveniles Saturday night, Jennifer Carey, a police spokesperson, told NBC Los Angeles. The charges included vandalism, firing dangerous/illegal fireworks, failure to disperse and curfew violations, NBC Los Angeles reported…

Other videos show cars in the street doing donuts, with one red car’s tires appearing to smoke as a crowd recording on cellphones gathers around. Another video shows a white car doing donuts while passengers hang out the window. A third video shows a white truck spinning its tires to kick up smoke before it does donuts in what appears to be an intersection.

An estimated 2,500 people showed up Saturday night, some of them had flown in from other states. They swarmed the streets downtown as well as the beach. Traffic laws were effectively suspended.

Huntington Beach tiktok throwback pic.twitter.com/qX2S8Eznbh

— Carson (@carsonrudy24) May 23, 2021

People were doing all sorts of stupid things including setting of fireworks in crowds of people.

Go to Huntington Beach on the @Snapchat map right now. It does not disappoint 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/y7i4l5hCCW

— Chris Woodard (@ThaChrisWoodard) May 23, 2021

And stupid stunts like jumping off the pier:

The Adrian TikTok Huntington Beach Party pic.twitter.com/NDV52BT2nh

— The Cruz Show (@TheCruzShow) May 23, 2021

This video has been shared a bunch of times:

#kickback #HuntingtonBeach pic.twitter.com/1PYyfLxYEB

— AF Squadron (@AlmostFamousInc) May 24, 2021

This TikTok user also made a clip of things he filmed Saturday:

@thesyncup

#adrianskickback just ended!! Soo many cops, they were firing paintballs!!😳 #adrians #foryou

♬ original sound – 🥸

You get the idea. It’s several thousand people having a drunken street party. Police declared an unlawful assembly which is one step below a riot. NY Times reporter Taylor Lorenz tracked down Adrian.

I found Adrian from Adrian’s kickback! and his friend who posted the original viral TikTok. The hashtag #Adrianskickback has over 180M views on TikTok as of today pic.twitter.com/pzwUHX0ble

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) May 23, 2021

There was supposed to be an art fair in this area Sunday afternoon but CBS LA reports everything that had been set up for that was destroyed.

I’ve seen some people suggest this story is really about the power of social media. I guess that’s true. Whether it’s people protesting a police shooting or partyers attending a birthday for someone they don’t know, everyone is just following the crowd. And when the crowd becomes a mob after dark police do their best to keep people from getting hurt.