This weekend I spent two days at the NEC in Birmingham at the Insomnia Gaming Festival. Now Insomnia has been going for years and but it is slowly becoming more popular with the younger generation thanks to the multitude of youtube stars who grace the stage during the event and this was how I heard about it. Last year both my girls asked if we could go to Insomnia 56 but unfortunately we were in America at the time so I promised them that we would head along to the next one although I had no idea what it was all about.
We headed down to Birmingham on Friday and had a good wander around the halls, looking at all of the games that we could play as well as checking out the stages. Now we spent most of Friday at the Insomnia stage watching a variety of Youtubers play each other at different games and this was a great way of not only getting to see some of the girls favourites but also learn about new games. It was also good for me to begin to understand what the girls were talking about when they chat about things like “build battle”.
One of the highlights of the day for the girls was winning tickets to go and meet DanTDM so that they could give him the gifts that they had chosen for him (he even featured the sour haribo pug sweets they chose for him in his latest video!). Dan was so great with them and I really felt that he was genuinely happy to be able to meet some of his fans in person and I think their smiles say it all. My girls have met their fair share of celebrities and they are never that bothered but I think meeting Dan has been a high point in their lives and they have not stopped talking about it since. Elizabeth can’t wait to show her friends the arrow that he autographed for her.
After spending most of Friday watching the stages we decided to head back to Insomnia on Sunday to play some of the games that were available and really take our time to have a look around and see all of the bits that we missed on the first day. Check out this video to really get a feel of the event.
We all had an amazing time at Insomnia 57 and the girls have already made me promise that we will return for Insomnia 58. Unfortunately we are flying back from our cruise on the Friday so we will miss the first day but I have booked a hotel near the NEC so we can make the most of the rest of the days there and really emerse ourselves in the amazing atmosphere and get our game on! Hopefully by then I will have had a little bit more practice at Build Battle.
You can buy tickets to Insomnia 58 by clicking the image below. Insomnia is also visiting Edinburgh for Insomnia Scotland and Killarney for Insomnia Ireland