to ask if any of your DC got ripped off at the YouTuber event Hello World?

[BriechonCheese]

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.

Two tickets to see helloworld on Sat 28th October £119.04. Hotel in Birmingham £52 and a 6 hour round trip

1. We were at the front of the queue to get in. We managed to get into the main hall at about 1.05 - just in time to miss Alfie Deyes welcoming speech which meant 95% of all people missed it.

2. We were 'lucky' to win two sessions. First with Josh, Jack and Jake the other with Tyler Oakley and his special guest 'Tom Daley' Our email - and the terms on the website stated that we would be allowed to have two items signed and that a member of staff would take a photo.

We arrived at the first sessions and sat down.

There was a question and answer. The first session some members of the audience asked questions. At the end we all got up to queue for photos and autographs - Security was really brusque and told us to sit back down or leave. Everyone sat down thinking we would be called up for photo opportunities, but what happened was that Josh, Jack and Jake left.

Later we went back to see Tyler Oakley. He and Tom spent 10 minutes interviewing each other at the end they looked up and said, thanks we gotta go - goodbye and left. We were all sat thinking what about our photos and autographs. Tyler and Tom couldn't wait to get out of there fast enough

3. We queued for over an hour at the book signing only to be told when we eventually reached the stall that we weren't allowed in because we never had the correct band and it was for competition winners only. (though the advertisement on the website didn't say this)

4. Zoella's winter wonderland. Queued again for 90 mins. only to find that Zoella had left 20 mins earlier, but no one told the queue.

5. Went into the cinema and straight back out , apparently it was showing something. We didn't know this - didn't even see a door to enter it was closed most of the afternoon

6. went 4 times to look at Sugg world merchandise. Each time the queue was over an hour long so didn't bother. Hoodies £30 each

7. 100g sweets cost a staggering £2.20 - and all the sweets were large (big cola bottles etc) and huge bags. No scales put out. My daughter put about a dozen sweets in the bag and it came to £7.60

8. Bought an Oli White Tshirt. £18 each. then they wanted to charge £1.50 credit card transaction fee on top.

9. Evening show advertising blurb stated "as our giant sun transforms into the moon main street springs into action for our stage show. An evening extravaganza featuring all our headline talent in one giant spectacle, opening with a fashion show and ending with a house party to end all house parties (subject to change)

It sure did change. Half the youtubers advertised weren't on stage. It started with a food eating competition and ended with the vamps playing a song. It finished at 5.30 not 6pm as advertised.

No fashion show in sight. In fact I don't think half the you tubers were there at all.

10. Every Youtuber was surrounded by burly security so you couldn't get close to them, if you were lucky enough to get close.

11. Lots of pushing and shoving - advertised as lots of places to sit. 8 wooden benches"

12. The arena consisted Main street and 8 Booths (this is the standing arena of the main genting arena, so you can imagine they weren't that big)

Arcade stage - only 2 people could play at a time, Bakery - apparently Louise Pentland was there temporarily but you couldn't see her because of the crowds

HW News - (Radio 1) Cinema - closed most of the afternoon. Bookworld - only available with the correct winning band. Alfie Deyes and a few others promoting their books. Huge queues all afternoon. many disappointed people.

Zoellas winter wonderland - she was only in there for about an hour. Body shop - makeup tutorial - again couldn't get close to it when a youtuber was inside. Beach where a band played. and the school, not sure what was going on here... and lastly the main stage for the final show.

3000 odd people mainly teenage girls wanting to see their youtube idols and their mums. The youtubers couldn't be found and if they did suddenly appear all the audience would rush towards them

Zoella and alfie didn't take part in the evening show as Zoella had anxiety (they appeared on stage for about 2 mins then left). - Although I'm sympathetic to her condition she was one of the headliners and she was happy to publicise it and sell her goods in her wonderland. Therefore lots of kids very disappointed that they didn't see her at all.

The whole 'show' was over-priced, over-hyped, over-crowded. Everyone was complaining that there wasn't anything to really do, and that the 'stars' were nowhere to be seen.

The staff were rude, security overbearing.

VIPs who paid about £50 per ticket more got a really bad deal, as they ran out of VIP bags, and they were late going in so didn't even get photos with the stars.

The audience mainly young girls are totally besotted by these people, who couldn't be bothered to interact with them. I felt like I was there to make even more money for the youtubers whose only skills in life seems to be to make videos about themselves.

I am totally disgusted by the whole experience, to be fleeced for as much money as possible. The organisation was a total shambles

Still haven't heard back from See tickets, Helloworld, Killanmanjaro, Glee

For a bunch of people who have made their fortunes talking in blogs, vlogs and other social media channels there has been absolutely no comments from any of them. No apology, no explanation just silence.

Which just proves our point that this was all about making as much money as possible whilst giving as little back as they could.

It's the kids that are writing "great" reviews because they will not hear any thing against their idols and probably don't realise how much this has actually cost their parents.

I didn't find rappers using the F word on stage, references to tinder and stories about neighbours dead husbands suitable for the age group who where there.

They promised a lot but failed to deliver on most of it.

Thanks to skustew, Brie and fridgepants for explaining about affiliate links.

How do I remove the cookies placed by clicking on these affiliate links?

@BriechonCheese I'm sadly not surprised gleamers get such a high RPM. I just wonder why zoella needs to do these con events and low quality over priced clothing?

She is making a fortune from AdSense, superdrug and boots products and affiliate links without being super shady. Her house in Hassocks people call a mansion and maybe it is for people in their 20s. But many boomers I know on just one average income live in similar houses. It can't take that much to keep it ticking over and shes easily earnt enough to be close to being mortgage free. She doesn't appear to have an extravagant lifestyle - all the clothes are for free and the only luxury she has is takeout most nights.

@EdgarAllanPO the sponsorsed post rules don't go far enough and there isn't much enforcement. Unless the company sponsoring has editorial control I believe they don't have to list it as an ad. Someone like lush will easily pay zoella 50k to open their products on camera without editorial control as they know she will give a great review to keep getting the money for advertorials that pretend to be honest unbiased reviews.

Why do Saccone Jolys not do these Gleam features group events?

I think the SacconeJolys were on a book tour this week so maybe that's why. I'm pretty sure they've been to some in the past, maybe the American ones.

We haven't had replies to any of our emails yet.

I'm planning to send my DS and his friend on a coding course - which they would absolutely love. Hopefully that will help ease the pain.

Ta, was just wondering if they were too successful to mix with the plebs these days.

Don't give up, organisers are relying on people doing so, trading standards all the way!!

skustew £50,000 for a product review? Where is that figure from?

Daily
Some of the sites I managed were offered product placement "reviews" (which we didn't accept) for £3-7k for a mention not even including a link, so I can well see that being true or Zoella et al.

Brie, completely off thread. What coding course is that? Looking for one for dcs.

Why do people go to these shit you tuber events?

New Statesman have published this article on it:
www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2017/10/i-feel-i-ve-been-robbed-inside-helloworld-fyre-festival-youtubers

@skustew planning for her future probably, making as much cash now whilst she is hot cos it isn't like she has anything 'real' to do when she grows up and falls out of popularity.

@blueshoes

How do I remove the cookies placed by clicking on these affiliate links?

If you have Firefox as your browser there is an add on called Self Destructing Cookies which forcibly removes cookies when you close a website. I use it and get no ads based on what I've viewed.

My 8 year old got a magazine today, £4.50!!!! If you don't mind. Zoella was on the front cover and yes dd knew exactly who she was, despite never watching her channel.

blue
The one I've had recommended to me is Coder Dojo but I'm going to look into a few more before deciding.

2014
Because they like the people involved? The same as any concert, I suppose.

50k for a dedicated video on on shop by a top YouTuber is actually conservative. Don't want to out myself but its in my feild of work.

I can see zoella drying up in a few years, but even if it fell to 10% of currently earnings that would still be a dream income for 99% of people in the country.

I use private browsing for buying stuff and usually use quidco or something to get the affiliate money myself.

At least with a concert you can go with a certain expectation and be pretty sure that expectation will be met. Singer performs songs on stage. Enjoy. Go home. Whereas the premise of this event was pretty vague from the start. They knew damn well people wouldn't go if Zoe & co weren't going to be there "possibly" appearing in front of you for a photo and a hug. People were paying for that chance, that opportunity. So the overwhelming majority who missed out will have gone home somewhat disappointed.

I use easyfundraising.co.uk to click through so that a charity can get the affiliate money. Some of the % can be really high especially if you're a new customer or it's for something like insurance.

doctortwo, skustew and MrsJamin, thanks for the tips on removing or avoiding affiliate links. Who would have thought all this was in the background.

Brie, will check out coderdojo. Thanks for the lead.

JaackMaaate has been complaining about YouTube’s exploiting children for a while. This isn’t the first time any of the youtubers here have been shit towards their fans, he has spoke about this many times and the video below explains why many if them took the piss and exploited children.

. JaackMaaate recorded a podcast with Josh and grilled him about his mates like oli exploiting children. It’s a very good listen and Josh defending Oli White was amusing. He mentions a YouTube event that is not as expensive and isn’t organised in a way for youtubers to get as much cash as they can, but for the fans to benefit. Summer in The City I think.

They didn’t even have enough goody bags for everyone who bought tickets either.

They weren’t all arseholes either, there was one who extended her meet and greet from the scheduled three hours, to six hours so that she could speak to everyone.

I watched the video linked below. Dighy, I think the YouTuber he's referring to wasn't at HelloWorld, it was at the Summer in the City event.

I cannot believe they didn't have enough goody bags, it was a ticketed event so they knew exactly how many VIPs were going to be there!

DoubleDinghyRapids DD has been to SITC twice and it is well organised. She loved it both times.