A viral party called 'Adrian's Kickback' blew up on TikTok over the weekend and led to nearly 150 arrests, police said

• A viral party known as "Adrian's Kickback" took place on Friday and Saturday.

• The event went viral on TikTok, drawing massive crowds to Huntington Beach, California.

• Police said it precipitated 149 arrests.

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Officials said that a massive, viral party known as "Adrian's Kickback" precipitated nearly 150 arrests in Huntington Beach, California, on Saturday night, NBC News reported.

Hype for the party built up over the past week after a video posted by TikTok user @adrian.lopez517 went viral, NBC Los Angeles reported. While the video, and everything else on @adrian.lopez517's account, appears to have been deleted or set to private, the excitement for the party is still clearly visible on TikTok: The hashtag #adrianskickback has amassed over 274 million views.

NBC Los Angeles reported that the "Adrian" in question had originally invited people to "pop out 'n celebrate" his birthday. But the gathering spiraled into a party with a guest list that numbered in the thousands and led to police action in Huntington Beach.

'Adrian's Kickback' started with viral social-media posts and took off on TikTok

The New York Times' Taylor Lorenz reported that the event started out as 17-year-old Adrian Lopez's birthday party, and was originally geared toward people at his high school. But it exploded online after Lopez's friend, Yahir Hernandez, posted the flyer for the event on his personal TikTok account. Propelled by the platform's algorithm, the video eventually began to spread, as did rumors about the event itself.

Dexerto reported that the original viral video advertised a BYOE - bring your own everything - gathering at the Huntington Beach firepits at 7:30 p.m. on May 22. Screenshots of the party flyer appear to be preserved in other TikTok videos.

Over the course of the week, the kickback began to draw major attention on social media

In the span of a week, the #adrianskickback hashtag has amassed hundreds of millions of views on TikTok, with people making memes and posting about traveling to California in order to attend the party.

Soon, other users were posting on TikTok and other social-media platforms about convincing their parents that they knew Adrian. Others made memes speculating about the event.

Celebrities and TikTok stars such as 24kGoldn and Noah Beck also posted about the event, further popularizing it.

By the time May 21 rolled around, the kickback hype had spread thoroughly across TikTok and other social media.

'Adrian's Kickback' took place over 2 nights in Huntington Beach, leading to chaos and arrests, police said

BuzzFeed News reported that people began to show up on Huntington Beach on Friday night. On Friday, the Huntington Beach Police Department posted on Facebook about the event, saying that it was "monitoring multiple social media posts advertising a large gathering on the beach this evening." The New York Times reported that while 1,000 people showed up at Huntington Beach for the event, police quickly shut it down.

The Times also said that Lopez and Hernandez, working with a friend in the events business, partnered with sneaker store Cookies N' Kicks to sell tickets to the event for $40 and host it at a location that was set to be shared before the party. But the address leaked before Lopez and Hernandez officially shared it, and a police officer shut the party down before it began.

Word of the venue change didn't fully spread, and on Saturday evening, the party in Huntington Beach exploded into chaos. The Huntington Beach Police Department told BuzzFeed News that an estimated 2,500 people were present. CBS Los Angeles reported that participants were setting off fireworks, as seen in one viral video that purported to be of the gathering. Other videos under the hashtag showed massive crowds of people in the streets.

The party was eventually declared an unlawful assembly shortly after 7 p.m. on Saturday evening, police told BuzzFeed news, and law enforcement put an emergency 11:30 p.m. curfew in place. The Los Angeles Times reported that a local Huntington Beach business owner said police at one point used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. One TikTok user, @TheSyncUp, said officers were firing paintballs into the crowd, BuzzFeed News reported. Videographer Sean Carmitchel posted videos on Twitter and said police were deploying "less lethals" toward the crowd.

A total of 149 people - 121 adults and 28 juveniles - were arrested, Jennifer Carey, Huntington Beach Police Department's public information officer, told NBC Los Angeles. Those people were booked on different changes, including vandalism, the firing of dangerous or illegal fireworks, failure to disperse, and curfew violations, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Now, the legacy of "Adrian's Kickback" lives on in social-media posts, with the party regarded as one of the most chaotic viral events in history. And as for Adrian Lopez himself: People on TikTok questioned where he was during the event, and who he was in the first place.

In a statement to The New York Times, Lopez said that he "did not start or encourage any illegal activities." He added, "Safety is and will always be my #1 concern for both myself and others." He said that he did not make any money related to the event. The Times reported that Hernandez, Lopez's friend, organized refunds to those who had purchased tickets to the Saturday-night event.

The TikTok account that appears to belong to Lopez did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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