Thousands turn up for Mexican teen's birthday bash

Thousands of people turned up to a teenage girl's birthday party in Mexico after her parents' video invitation to "everyone" went viral.

Rubi Ibarra Garcia, a small-town Mexican teen, was expecting more than a million guests at her 15th birthday party after her parents' video invitation to the milestone event went viral online.

Thousands reportedly showed up to the party yesterday.

Girls' 15th birthday parties are often a huge deal in Latin America, where families traditionally pull out all the stops.

But Rubi's "quinceanera" party was set to take the phenomenon to a whole new level, after the invite became an offbeat internet sensation.

"Hi, how's it going? We would like to invite you this December 26 to our daughter Rubi Ibarra Garcia's 15th birthday party in La Joya," her dad, Crescencio, says in the video.

Dressed in a cowboy hat typical of northern Mexico, he ticks off the names of the bands that will play at the party and announces a horse race with a 10,000-peso prize (about €500), as his wife and the now-famous Rubi stand at his side.

"Everyone" is invited, he said.

Following the invitation, 1.3 million Facebook users replied that they would attend.

It promised to be a massive affair for La Joya, a village of 200 people near the city of San Luis Potosi.

"This all got out of control," Crescencio said in one of the many media interviews he has given.

"That doesn't mean we didn't want to invite everyone, of course, but here our parties are regional... This is something we weren't expecting."

An airline turned the commotion into free publicity, offering discount tickets to get to the party. And a video game has emerged in which a teenage girl runs down a red carpet, tossing invitations to all and sundry.

The family said they were originally expecting around 800 people for the party. Local authorities decided to move it to a large open field and sent a security detail for what Mexican media are calling "the party of the year".

However, tragedy marred the horse-racing event at the party. 

"Two people entered the track and were hit by the horses ... One of them died and the other was hospitalised with a broken leg," the state of San Luis de Potosi in a statement.

But the party continued as planned.