My DS(13) went to the HelloWorld event yesterday - which was billed as an "immersive event" run by Alfie Deyes from PointlessBlog. (This is probably a TL:DR so in short - the event was useless, thousands of children were crying. The event organisers are ignoring it. Vastly inflated YouTube stars put in minimal effort for the whole event and the special additions for the VIP ticket were changed in the days immediately before the event. Disabled access also a nightmare).
He saved up his pocket money and birthday money to attend and even paid extra for VIP tickets for him and his friend because his friend has been through a hard time of it. This VIP ticket was supposed to give him access to meeting some of his idols (I can't criticise him for his choice in idols - I liked Take That, East17 and Adam Ricket as a teenager). The day before the event they were told actually VIP holders wouldn't get what they were promised but would be given a tour of the event by one YouTuber and they now had to enter a competition to other meet youtubers.
It as a shambles and from the photos my DH took (he went with him) it seemed to be a room full of teenagers milling around having being told their idols wouldn't be doing formal meet and greets (as in the norm with YouTube events) but walking around ok and off during the day - so basically the whole place was gridlocked with people hoping to see someone famous walking around. The youtubers in fact seemed to all stay behind the scenes and Snapchat from backstage.
None of the children were getting what they were promised (rides, chance to bake with their idols, play games with them and loads of stuff) none of them enjoying it or being able to access the "immersive events", half of them were in tears and the other half were angry. There was a performance which was due to last 2 hours but the performers lasted less than 1hr 30 mins and the big names appeared for about 5 mins.
It turned out to be an arena where children paid to enter in order to queue with other children to buy over priced merchandise.
Lots of children were pushed and shoved by other attendees, security and staff - my DH saw one girl being lifted out of the queue having being pushed against a bench by a surge of people.
Worst of all, the tickets said under 14s would be seated, so my niece who also went and is disabled was excited she could attend and feel safe in a seat. It turns out, from staff, that the under 14s rule was applicable to concerts only and this wasn't mentioned before hand. She is able to stand but is in agony today as a result. Disabled access otherwise was a nightmare and many disabled attendees were excluded from 95% of the events (which ended up mainly being them getting to queue to look at stalls that were sold out or areas where they might see a YouTuber but in reality no one showed up).
Yesterday social media was trending with how awful it was and it has been completely ignored by the organisers and "creators"/youtubers both on the HelloWorld social media pages and on their own personal pages.
Does anyone else have DC who came home disappointed from this event? Is anyone else sick to the backteeth of these YouTuber "creators" putting in absolutely minimal effort to take cash from impressionable children?
Zoella, Alfie Deyes, Sprinkle of Glitter, Mark Ferris, Joe Sugg, Marcus Butler, Tyler Oakley and their little gang of white washed, hyper consumerism based idiots are banned in our house hence forth.