150 are arrested as party promoted on TikTok gets unruly
The celebration seemed to start innocently: A teenager named Adrian uploaded a video to TikTok, the social media giant, advertising a weekend bonfire for his birthday at a firepit near lifeguard station 13 at Huntington Beach State Park.
“BYOE” text over the video read. “Bring your own everything.” He billed the party as “Adrian’s kickback.”
By Saturday, millions of people — if not tens of millions, or more — had viewed the video and were sharing it widely across the popular social media network of short, disappearing videos.
Thousands of revelers showed up, some, apparently, from other states. For several hours, the massive crowds partied around the pier, running through traffic, climbing on top of lifeguard stations, setting off fireworks and ransacking stalls where artisans sell their goods. Riot police from around the region were called to quell the festivities and chaos, with officers firing tear gas and lesslethal munitions to get the attendees to disperse.
After it was all over, police made nearly 150 arrests; 121 were adults and 28 juveniles, said Huntington Beach Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Carey.
“It was nutso out of there,” said Laura Klees.
She was having dinner at Duke’s Restaurant on the pier Saturday night with her fiancé when the crowds started getting out of control. Police showed up dressed in riot gear and guarded the door. Patrons were stuck inside for hours.
“It just started getting worse,” she said. “Then things got really crazy. You’d see mobs run this way, that way. Then they mobbed the pier.”
At 10 p.m. they decided they wanted to leave, but were told by police as they left they’d be on their own and couldn’t be helped if the mob attacked.
On Sunday, police temporarily closed the parking lot at the Huntington City Beach. The lot, which was a gathering place for party-goers on previous nights, was to be reopened this morning. “We also wanted to have more room
Police with non-lethal weapons face a crowd of partiers in Huntington Beach on Saturday night.
for emergency response in case it is needed,” Carey said.
As of 6 p.m. Sunday, police had not been alerted to any unusual activity at the beach, but Carey said they and other agencies were prepared for any further problems.
How a random video by an ordinary teenager ended up taking over one of the biggest social media networks in the world for a weekend was still not clear on Sunday. Famous creators on TikTok regularly net millions of views for their short videos, but their content is usually intended for a viral audience.
From a review of just a few TikToks about the event, it appears that many users who’d never heard of Adrian took the news of the event and spun it into something bigger, whether they wanted to attend the party or not.
The hashtag advertising the event, “Adrian’sKickBack,” was seen 182.6 million times on the app, according to numbers from TikTok.
Carey was on the scene until the early morning. She said of those people she talked to, most came from outside of Orange County.
“Based on the limited
contact that I had with people at the event, I did hear a lot of Inland Empire and L.A. County,” she said.
Much of the chaos played out over social media. Footage showed crowds dancing to music. One video showed a large group gathered just below the pier, watching another partier hanging off the railing before jumping into their midst. Another captured the moment when someone set off fireworks at ground level, resulting in a huge explosion that sent a group of people fleeing. And others continued filming as police officers lined up to order them off the beach.
Officers dressed in riot helmets and armed with batons could be seen shoving an individual to the ground and placing that person in handcuffs.
Other footage showed more officers wearing riot helmets and armed with less-lethal firearms as they formed lines toward crowds that had gathered in the downtown area. Video on social media showed officers in some instances firing those weapons.
News video from the scene showed a police cruiser with shattered windows. Carey said multiple police vehicles were damaged.
Police shut down Pacific Coast Highway from Beach Boulevard to Goldenwest Street during the incident.
Those arrested were booked on a variety of charges, including vandalism, firing dangerous/illegal fireworks, failure to disperse, and curfew violations.
Huntington Beach officials weren’t able to confirm Sunday whether any of those arrestees were still in custody, or if they’d been released.
As police chased the partygoers from the scene, some rampaged through the line of stalls on the southside of Pacific Coast Highway just in front of the pier where artisans typically sell their wares.
Videos show attendees rummaging through Kandie Gonzales’ stand, Peace Sol & Succulents, making off with potted plants.
Gonzales surveyed her stand early Sunday morning, posting video to her Instagram. In the video she says other vendors there had hundreds of dollars worth of items stolen.
“Very, very sad,” she said. “No respect for people’s private stuff. I mean, there were so many hundreds of people looting.”
Other downtown businesses were damaged. Lifeguard tower 13 sustained damage from people climbing on top of it.
No significant injuries were reported among officers or party-goers, Carey said.
The original video, by user adrian.lopez517, has been deleted. Whether Adrian is from the area could not be confirmed Sunday. A TikTok spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
Reports of people from outside California coming to the party could not be independently confirmed Sunday. Police did not yet have information on the cities of residence of those arrested. Anecdotal reports, however, indicated attendees came from all over. A group of partiers told television news reporters they had traveled from Stockton. A user on TikTok said he flew in from Detroit to join the festivities.
The crowd on Saturday evening surged to around 2,500 people at one point, police said.
Officers ordered the crowd to disperse at around 7:13 p.m., after partygoers started climbing on top of lifeguard toward 13. An “emergency curfew” was ordered for downtown from 11:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Sunday.
Alicia Whitney is the owner of Huntington Beach House, a new restaurant set to open on the beach in a few weeks. She said due to the tumult, she hired three security guards to guard her investment all weekend, day and night. They were hassled during the chaos, she said.
She listened all Saturday night to sirens and helicopters from the gathering at the pier. Her restaurant wasn’t damaged. She said she’s troubled all the same.
“It’s so disheartening to see people come from around the world to take out their anger on society in our town,” she said.
As Klees and her fiancé finally left Duke’s, they encountered two youngsters. The pair told them they traveled from Minnesota and were making a film about the gathering.
“They were very nice and respectful,” Klees said.
Rick “Rockin’ Fig” Fignetti awoke to graffiti on the window of his Rockin’ Fig Surf Shop. A group of friends showed up and scrubbed the tagging off his shop, as well as the others marked along Main Street.
“We want to get back to being a surf contest town, soaking in some rays and just getting back to a more peaceful atmosphere,” he said.
Fignetti and other shop owners were hearing the beach partiers were planning to come back Sunday night. He was contemplating boarding his windows to avoid looting, but may opt to take his chances.
“I think I’ll leave it in the police’s hands and hopefully they can control it,” he said. “It is what it is.”