Summer in the City Roundup

So this past weekend, I decided to head on down to the ol’ Lon of Don to attend the YouTubey themed ‘Summer in the City’ gathering. This was my first time attending SitC, and sort of my second Youtube focused gathering event (following the Lincoln Gathering in April.) I’ll be working on getting a vlog about it soon, but for now here’s my written take on the event.

Day 1 - Friday

So Friday comes and I hop on my train right down to London, getting some Burger King for my lunch before going through the obligatory ‘where the hell do I go’ thing I go through everytime I visit a new thing. My previous knowledge of SitC being some vlog Bown posted, where it was all grass and stuff, I was surprised to immediately spot it there was a pretty large queue leading into a building. After a good 20 minutes or so standing in line chatting with excitable young fangirls who obviously know nothing of my work, I eventually managed to get inside and was directed towards the upstairs room where there was music, the colour red, and large groups surrounding allegedly popular YouTubers I know nothing about. I eventually spotted some familiar faces such as Weebl, Matt, TomSka, Jack & Dean, Eddache, Jack Mace and such, before becoming trapped between a wall and a deadly rapid of Dean fans.

After realising I could actually go downstairs, I ventured my way to the main gathering room where HOLY SHIT BALL PIT! Sponsored by Channel Flip, a YouTube network I had recently signed up to (they had a personalised shirt with my URL on the back and everything), the ball pit was where I spent a good 20% of the day’s activities drowning in balls and having my goggles pressed into my eyes with someone’s arse. Good times. In the times where I weren’t balls deep, I met lots of nice chaps, such as Khyan and TimH, as well as some genuine fans who knew of my work and let me sign things. There was also a cushiony type room which featured free milkshakes and smoothies, with me opting for a peach and banana one that ultimately tasted a bit naff.

One thing about the venue which concerned me was the impression it gave that, if you left, you may not be able to get back in. This grew a particular question mark for the evening gigs, where people had priority wristbands and such (from what I recall, there was a large mess with that with Dean, who was one of the headlining acts, having to actually queue to get in). As such, I decided, once I checked into my Travelodge and dined on some pie of dubious quality, to head down to Leicester Square to join Steph and her crew to a screening of The Room. The atmosphere in the room was great, with laughs all around and spoons flying everywhere (I totally took a couple as souvenirs.) Totally did not regret opting for that, although maybe a little after hearing Jack and Dean had made out in the evening gig. Oh well.

Day 2 - Saturday

After waking up a little later than I would have liked to, largely due to the bigass blind that covered up any natural light, I got myself down to the Brewery again to sit in a larger queue, although this one went by a bit quicker. There was still some ball pit fun to be had, although I didn’t spend as long in there as I did the other day. Along with meeting other faces, such as Zictor and Paul ter Voorde, I encountered a few other fans who recognised my work and got me to either sign or draw things. I was right chuffed when I was given the opportunity to draw on someone’s iPhone. I also auditioned for this GamesMaster magazine thing where you could win a VIP pass to the Golden Joystick Awards or something. Will let you know when that surfaces. Realising there was actually additional rooms downstairs, I set myself up in the game room for a short bit to introduce a few unsuspecting strangers into the world of Jungle Speed, a Newgrounds meetup favourite, and later attended a little gig by Eddplant in which Bing had a dance off and I had a tired arm just trying to film it. Again, anxiety over whether you could get back in or not led me to skip the evening gig, missing out on a live set from Weebl, instead opting to spend the evening in my hotel room watching X-Factor and the second half of Die Hard.

Day 3 - Sunday

After watching a bit of Power Rangers before checking out of my hotel, I made my way over to Jubilee Gardens where the final day of SitC was being held. Getting hungry, I went over to EAT. and proceeded to eat some chicken soup whilst DuDuL just watched intently. *shudder* After meeting with Louise for some non-brownnosey discussion, rain started to hit the town so we decided to say ‘screw it’ and went down with Jack Mace and his mates over to Namco Station for some dodgeming, bowling and rather pathetic laser dodging. After a few hours, we returned to the surface to find it was bloody hot, in which we simply joined the more familiar batch of tubers for a sitdown. As it approached fooding hour, we all decided to head to Ed’s Diner, though due to some dispute concerning the sitting or something, me, along with Louise, Dudul, Paul and his fiancée Sabrina, proceeded to go onto Pizza Hut where we drank squash and ate pizza like real bros. After that, I needed to head back to my little home where I proceeded to watch anime until I passed out.

All in all, a good weekend. Could probably benefit from a little more organization (at the very least, some kind of stamp system so people can easily get back in whilst popping out for meals or something), but otherwise swell. Every meet should have a ballpit too.

Next big thing should probably be the October MCM Expo. Tempted to cosplay for this one, depending on how much I can remember about papier maché.