Netflix's new documentary series, Trainwreck, focuses on unique and scandalous media moments of the 21st century. This week, it takes us to the small town of Haren, Netherlands, where we witnessed what was dubbed "The Real Project X" in September 2012. An innocent Facebook post by Merthe Weusthuis inviting her friends to her 16th birthday party went viral, sparking unthinkable events, from the deployment of riot police to vandalism and the destruction of the entire town. Despite being a fun and lighthearted film about the bizarre escalation of events, The Real Project X also serves as a reminder of the power of social media, which can have both positive and negative consequences on unprecedented levels.
The Real Project X begins in 2024, in the Dutch town of Haren, when the protagonist of this unusual story, Merthe Weusthuis, visits her home. After the 2012 incident, Merthe had to leave the Netherlands and settle elsewhere in Europe, not so much because of legal or social issues, but out of sheer shame. Sitting down for an interview, Merthe recalls that fateful day in 2012, when she thought of creating a Facebook event to invite her friends to her birthday party.
Director: Alex Wood
While living with her parents in the wealthy city of Haren, she spent most of her days in the nearby city of Groningen. Her closest friends, Iloe and Fenna, recall how they met and befriended the girl when she joined their volleyball team in the city. The three of them practiced together at the same gym, and it was there that their friendship was forged and grew into a very close bond.
For people like Iloe and Fenna—those who live in Groningen—the residents of Haren always seemed too rich, elegant, and sometimes snobbish. As in many other places around the world where neighboring cities are divided by economic class, the young people of Groningen and Haren felt they had very little in common. But this perception of Iloe and Fenna changed when they became friends with Merthe and realized that, despite coming from a wealthy family, she felt closer to them than many of their friends in the city. So, when Merthe wanted to celebrate her 16th birthday at home and got her parents' permission and support to organize it, Iloe and Fenna were the first friends she thought of inviting.
But this was 2012, when social media was booming, and as Merthe admits, everyone was posting everything about themselves on Facebook. Personally inviting friends to the party wasn't enough, as information about the celebration also had to be posted on social media. Furthermore, Merthe was turning 16 in just a few days, which is considered a cause for great celebration in the Netherlands, as 16 is the legal drinking age. Merthe wanted to announce something important on her Facebook profile, admitting that she already enjoyed getting "likes," an activity that was already used as social currency back then. She wanted her friends and everyone on her friends list to feel like she was a cool girl, so she created a Facebook event for her birthday party.
This event page listed the date, time, and location of the party, which was being held at her house, and also included her phone number so her friends could contact her directly if needed. However, at one of the most crucial stages of creating the page, Merthe didn't fully understand the two options Facebook offered and opted to make the event public rather than private. This meant that those she had originally invited could forward the invitations to her party to their own friends, without Merthe having any control over them. Without giving it much thought, she sent out invitations to the event to 78 people, all friends she knew well and wanted to invite to her birthday party. To her surprise, however, the number of invitations and confirmed attendees kept growing with every passing minute, and her 16th birthday party was about to be hijacked by young people who wanted to have their own "Project X."
However, things spiral out of control as the party begins, as thousands of teenagers flock to the house, even breaking into areas Thomas had initially banned from guests. Eventually, one of the neighbors calls the police to report the teens, setting off a terrible chain of events that gives the event widespread media coverage. Large groups of teenagers riot in protest against the police, Thomas's dealer sets fire to his house in revenge for the stolen MDMA pills, and one guest even drives his father's expensive Mercedes into the pool, wrecking it. Eventually, the police also make arrests, but despite the crazy consequences, Costa, JB, and Thomas receive a lot of media attention. Most importantly, they are now loved and revered by everyone at school, which had been their main intention all along.
Unsurprisingly, "Project X" became a huge hit with young people, and in addition to generating huge sales success, the film also began to have a major cultural impact. Young people from all over the United States began organizing extravagant parties with huge guest lists, with one goal: to match the scale, intensity, and chaos of the "Project X" party. So, when the teenagers at Merthe's school in Haren learned that her birthday party was a public event according to the Facebook page, they were convinced to turn it into a Dutch reenactment of "Project X." Incidentally, this wouldn't be the only attempt to recreate the events of the American film in a foreign country, as similar attempts were made in several other countries, including Mexico and Argentina.
Merthe's birthday party Facebook page was shared with over 3,500 people in the first few hours of its creation by the young people at her school, who just wanted to party and barely knew the girl. But Merthe reveled in the attention and even tweeted about it, still believing that people were just joking and that the hype would die down in a few hours. Instead of stopping, people continued to spread the invitation to even more friends and acquaintances, and the number of guests exceeded 10,000. Merthe wanted to delete the event page right then and there, realizing the situation was getting out of hand, but she couldn't do it from her phone, as a page or event could only be deleted on the desktop version of Facebook. By the time she managed to delete it that evening, it already had close to 20,000 guests.
However, Merthe simply deleted the page too late, as thousands of people had already heard about her birthday party, and many were unwilling to back down. One of those young people was Jorik Clarck, 18, a resident of Groningen, who was deeply disappointed when the event page was suddenly deleted, as he had been eagerly following the increase in guests and expected it to skyrocket even further. Realizing that Merthe must have deleted the page, Jorik created a similar event at his home, but named it "Project X: Haren," intending to make the birthday party seem like what it was supposed to be: a perfect opportunity to recreate the "Project X" party.
This new page went viral even faster than Merthe's original event, and memes had a lot to do with this growing popularity. People began creating all kinds of memes about the party, and the number of guests skyrocketed to over 30,000. By then, Merthe had gotten Jorik's phone number through mutual friends and had her father call the teenager to settle the matter. Jorik got the message clearly and soon deleted the page he had created. However, the damage had been done, and Jorik's decision to create a similar page had shown the world that they could do something like this too.
Thus, within hours of Jorik's deletion, a third Facebook page was created, this time with a fake profile. While it was likely some young man who found it funny, the fact that his fake name contained anti-Semitic words didn't help. By the day of the event, more than 300,000 people had been invited through the Facebook page, and even Merthe's phone number was leaked. People began printing T-shirts and billboards about the party, and local radio stations began calling Merthe for clarification. The situation became so tense for her that she had to leave her home on the afternoon of her birthday, along with her family, except for her father, who decided to stay behind so that the neighbors wouldn't be bothered by his daughter's mistake.
To cover all aspects of "Project X Haren," the Netflix series "The Real Project X" also delves into the authorities' reaction that night, which was, to say the least, inadequate. For starters, Merthe's parents informed the Haren police about the birthday invitation that had gone viral the same night she deleted the event page. However, the authorities initially failed to understand the significance of this virality and subsequently didn't consider it alarming enough to interfere. However, as the event became increasingly shared in the following days, and entertainment and news channels began reporting on it, the authorities also took notice.
Mariska, a Haren council member, also received an invitation to the party, along with the "Project X" trailer, which immediately alarmed her. She realized that total chaos would break out if such a party were held, so she wanted the authorities to intervene. Mariska quickly attempted to discuss the matter with the former mayor of Haren, Rob Bats, and attempted to call him. But since Bats was away at meetings, he didn't answer her calls, and only a few days later he invited Mariska to his office to discuss the matter. By then, the mayor himself had learned about the large party being planned, but to Mariska's surprise, he had decided not to take it seriously, and Bats dismissed her concerns, stating that controlling the teenagers would not be a difficult task.
On the other hand, another man named Chris felt it necessary for the authorities to intervene and do something to divert the teenagers' attention. Coincidentally, Chris was Groningen's first elected night mayor, an official municipal position responsible for safety and order in the city's nightlife. Aware of the tendency of people, especially teenagers, to indulge in such activities, Chris immediately set about creating a diversion for the thousands of registered attendees. According to him, the only way to achieve this was to organize an even bigger party on the outskirts of Groningen that same day so that the teenagers would decide to attend it instead of flocking to Merthe's house. Chris admits that he had almost everything already organized and only needed Mayor Bats's approval. However, the mayor once again refused to take the matter seriously, so Chris's diversionary party was not approved. On the day of the party, all the authorities did was announce on their Facebook page, which had barely any followers, that the party had been officially canceled and that the teenagers were ordered not to gather at Haren's address.
By the end of the night on September 21, 36 people were seriously injured and 15 were arrested by the police, according to official statistics. Thousands of euros worth of property were damaged, including wooden poles, urban infrastructure such as public benches and bicycle racks, and several street businesses were burglarized and looted. A reporter named Arnoud, assigned by his employees to cover the party live, recalls how the angry crowd smashed and burned his car that night in retaliation against the riot police. Two YouTubers, Thomas and Giel, decided to film the events throughout the night for their new channel, Stuk TV, and their footage proved crucial in catching those responsible for the vandalism.
Thomas and Giel managed to record the faces of the teenagers who had attacked and looted the convenience stores. This footage, which they uploaded to YouTube within hours, was used by the police to track down the youths. Meanwhile, some of the rioters, like Thomas, who appears in the Netflix documentary, realized their mistake the next morning and returned all the looted goods. In a positive use of the social media platform for a change, Facebook was used to rally a group of responsible citizens who cleaned the streets of Haren the next day and restored order to the city.
Eventually, an official investigation was opened into the mayor and police chief's handling of the incident, and Mayor Rob Bats eventually resigned from his position in the face of mounting public pressure. The young people involved in the bizarre incident eventually realized their wrongdoing and admitted their guilt in The Real Project X, while Merthe has forgiven most of them and moved on with her life.
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