Weatherford’s Heritage Park across from city hall will be the site of Weatherford’s first TikTok social media app meet and greet.
Four favorites from the TikTok world, Darrell and his gategitting sidekick Gate Bart, the Tratter Gang and Nick Luciano will be in attendance, all with around 1 million followers. Gatlin Didier is originally from Thomas where he films most of his videos.
The event will be from 1-4 p.m. February 13 and the public is invited.
TikTok is a free downloadable app where short videos are highlighted in creative ways. Originally created by Chinese company ByteDance. Some of its holdings have begun to be divested, some to Americans, because of its popularity among teens and young adults.
Didier was raised on a farm in Thomas, attended the University of Oklahoma where he studied journalism and acting, married and moved north of Los Angeles. He said the pandemic slowed down acting opportunities and was told he should pursue social media platforms to develop a bigger name for himself. The plan is to turn this new found popularity into other acting jobs.
Didier had been featured in a couple of films, commercials and small acting parts. He is hoping the popularity of TikTok might open new doors.
His persona on TikTok is a farm boy named Darrell Bibbins who shoots short videos about farm life with his sidekick Gate Bart, played by Jarrett Sitton. He said it has been tons of fun and enjoys the opportunity to return back to his roots in Thomas to shoot the videos.
The Tratter Gang representatives, Zach Richert and Blake Moore, also will be on hand. Tratter is a current culture term for those who play with toy tractors and shoot videos. It has created a whole new realm of popularity in toy tractors.
Nick Luciano is the third guest attending the meet and greet. Luciano, often shirtless in his videos, also shoots videos of the antics of ranch life.
Those on TikTok can monetize their audience by gaining sponsorships for some of the products they use in the videos plus accept donations.
Food trucks will be on hand for the event as well. Local sponsors are helping present the event in Weatherford.