An area-wide traffic jam Friday night in Wesley Chapel went viral on social media Saturday.

An event called Festival of Flight took off Friday night in a way that surprised even the organizers, leading to the traffic nightmare.

Festival of Flight Organizer Keith Carver says he first noticed the traffic issues developing as he gave people airplane rides.

“All of a sudden we’re just overwhelmed.  We’ve got parking problems, we’ve got traffic problems,” Carver said.

Carver says in its first two years, Festival of Flight only attracted about 1,500 people per day.  However this year, the festival advertised on Facebook.  That generated more than 50,000 RSVPs for the three-day event.

Festival of Flight says it applied for the proper county permit for the event, but forecasted rain for Saturday and Sunday, the growing popularity of the event and rush hour all combined to create a mess on the roads.

“They said if we are going to go to this thing let’s get off work, change our clothes, maybe not even change clothes and just go down there,” Carver said.  “So everybody that was going to go to this thing it appeared to be last night.  Jumped in their car and all arrived at once.”

Drivers stuck in traffic reported hours-long delays on State Road 54 and 56 through Wesley Chapel, as well as I-75 near the State Road 54 exit ramp.

It led to angry comments on the group’s Facebook page.

Businesses say the traffic jam also cost them customers Friday night.

Amici Pizza on SR 54 manager Vincent Mannio says the restaurant had more than a dozen cancellations.

“What would normally take a few minutes ride, an hour and a half would go by and they would say they can’t get through traffic and they had to cancel.”

By the end of the night, as many as eight Pasco deputies were brought in to mitigate the traffic jam.

Steve Gaskins with the Florida Highway Patrol said events are usually responsible for hiring off-duty troopers or officers to control traffic.  FHP was unaware of any requests for traffic help from Festival of Flight.

Carver says the festival could make changes next year to the event to help mitigate the traffic nightmare that ensued this year.  But changing the location of the event, as some have suggested, is not likely.

Festival of Flight at the Tampa North Flight Center was cancelled Saturday due to inclement weather.  It will reopen Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.