What Was the Real Project X? Netflix's Trainwreck Explores Chaos in Dutch Town
HAREN, NETHERLANDS, JUL 8 – The Netflix documentary examines how a mistaken Facebook setting and the influence of the film Project X led to thousands descending on Haren, causing injuries, arrests, and over €1 million in damage.
- In September 2012, Dutch teenager Merthe Weusthuis publicly invited friends to her 16th birthday party on Facebook, which unexpectedly went viral and attracted thousands to Haren.
- The Facebook event was accidentally set to public and rapidly escalated as tens of thousands RSVP-ed despite official appeals urging people not to attend.
- Around 3,000 people showed up on the party night, leading to riots involving vandalism, looting, clashes with police, 34 arrests, and at least 36 injuries.
- Mayor Rob Bats condemned the chaos and resigned amid criticism for failing to control the unrest, while some rioters later expressed remorse and returned stolen items.
- Netflix's 2024 documentary Trainwreck: The Real Project X revisits the incident, examining social media’s role and featuring interviews with Merthe and others involved.
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Merthe Weusthuis, whose birthday thirteen years ago became world news, has told her story for the first time in a Netflix documentary and to de Volkskrant.
The True Story Behind Netflix’s Trainwreck: The Real Project X
For the people of Haren, a small town in the Netherlands, the 21st night of September is significant (and it has nothing to do with the music of Earth, Wind & Fire). Nearly 13 years ago, the town made international news when thousands of people showed up to celebrate a 16-year-old’s birthday after the party invite went viral on Facebook. It was chaos: Rioting injured at least 36 people, and dozens were arrested. In Trainwreck: The Real Project X…
Her sixteenth birthday was world news in 2012. Merthe Weusthuis (28) now talks for the first time in the Volkskrant about the evening when young people ravaged her village because of ‘Project X Haren’. A documentary about this will be on Netflix on Tuesday.
Three years ago, Netflix unearthed the Woodstock ’99 disaster with Trainwreck, a three-episode miniseries that portrayed the collapse of the festival. The documentary managed to stand out on the platform, accumulating more than 20 million hours reproduced and reaching eighth place among the most watched titles of that period. It is not surprising that the platform has chosen to be more strongly betting on this type of production. It is low-cost …
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