Summer in the City & London.

Summer in the City was something I’d been looking forward to for months. I’d never been before and wasn't sure really what to expect. At 7am, Ellis and I started our journey to London. Sadly though I left feeling kinda underwhelmed and disappointed, lots of mixed feelings about the day, let me tell you why.

On entering the hall, the feeling was quite surreal, and a bit overwhelming, there were so many faces there that we are only used to seeing on a screen, and within 10 minutes we’d seen so many, kinda a tingly skin moment! But then we realised how small the event was, and I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was assuming it would be bigger than it was.

We only met one person, I’d not heard of her before but Ellis loved her and it was a super cute moment seeing them meet! 

Some of the creators there added to my disappointment, I was hearing of no selfie policies, seeing someone running away from their fans, questionable advice being given out that implied you needed top equipment to start up in youtube. I could go on. 

But I want to bring this post around to acknowledging the youtuber’s who tried their absolute hardest to meet as many people as they could, people like Jodie (Just Jodes), Jack Dean (Jaackmaate), I saw Mark Ferris at one point, surrounded by a swarm of teenage girls screaming at him and he was trying his absolute hardest to take selfies with as many as he could, he was clearly on his way somewhere yet he did that for them. The same cant be said for the youtuber I witnessed running away from a similar situation.

I’m not a fan of Dodie, I don't watch her content or anything but I heard on social media afterwards that she was trying so hard to meet everyone she was exhausting herself, her team advising her to rest before her performance that night, and she said no, she wanted to meet as many people as she could. I never saw this with my own eyes, but I’ve heard similar stories about Dodie before and admire her for doing this for her fans. 

As with the entitled youtubers, I could go on. I want to try and remember this event in the eyes of the youtubers who were going above and beyond for their fans. I’m still dealing with some feelings I have about the youtuber who ran from his fans, I’ve watched him for a while, he's one of my favourites and I hate the word fan at my age but I guess thats what I am. But I didn't like what I saw at that event. Everything felt like it was an obligation for him, like a chore. He didn't seem to be enjoying himself meeting people, and its such a shame.

Anyway we spent a few hours here before heading off into London for a frolic around, being a typical tourist in our capital and visiting the Tower of London and Westminster before a spot of retail therapy on Oxford Street. I can count the times I've been to London on one hand, but I am in love with this city. I feel different when I'm there, its hard to explain!

We had a hilarious car ride home back to Leicester filled with singing, sweeties and calamities and you can watch Ellis’s video here for a good old giggle! I also made a little video here of the day.

I’m glad I went to SITC, it really opened my eyes to the fact that who we see through a screen aren't the same people who we may meet in real life. It made me realise some people become spoilt from a large following and turn into ugly people. I felt kind of out of place there, I wanted to leave because the atmosphere was weird to me. I felt the need to leave these stuck up few youtubers behind. But what it has also taught me is that there are some wonderful people, creating diverse content for us and sharing their lives with us, some helping us in ways they would never have thought.

But despite this, I won’t be going again. 

Thanks for reading.

Vikky

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