An Ode to VidCon, Where YouTube Groupies Meet Their Heroes

VidCon, the unofficial YouTuber’s conference, is a weird mix of fans, industry people, grumpy business men, squealing little girls, and YouTube stars themselves. In its fourth year of existence, VidCon saw 11,500 people flow through its doors. Online video stars are a big thing.

It begins on Wednesday night, in landscaped-to-concrete-perfection Anaheim. The go-kart overstimulation of budding profits. Lights, camera, action! Rising fast, on the portable screen.

VidCon is a screaming sea of fangirls encasing their heartthrob YouTube celebrity. Incognito winter hats and hoodies, famous guys from the internet running down the sidewalk, bodyguards in tow. Why are you fleeing? The innocents demand to ogle you, to touch you.

The moving years in youth, fame rising and falling in waves. Last year it was charlieissocoollike, this year AmazingPhil and danisonfire. Carefully skewed haircuts, the British invasion sustains itself.

VidCon is girls standing in hour-long wrap-around lines for autographs—it’s the dreamy accent, ok—digital snapshots are forbidden, says the white sign.

Young things hyperventilating in elevators, proximity to stardom squeezing lungs and cheeks, secretion.

VidCon is for friends. Driving across country, over oceans. In real life, hugging under fluorescent bulbs. The line to see the British boys is too long…

VidCon is a celebration of DIY creative control, a grand video and distribution experiment. Glossy speakers on panels, no business suit to tell you no. The magical place where even the unconventional, not worth a second look, can make it. New American dream, attention economy seeking borderline perfection.

Bewildered parents off to the side amuse themselves with props.

VidCon is banners, booths, bean cushions, makeup stools, swag bags and merchandise. Music festivals, trendy food trucks “seen on TV” under palm trees.

This tweet: "Vidcon is this beautiful collection of low-functioning fan girls and high-functioning alcoholics."

At night when the lanterns glow, off to sleep the children go.  Private poolside parties, beers in hotel rooms. The adults come out to play.

VidCon as the “new Hollywood” still breeds scandal like the Old, human weakness. Fame goes up through the temple and evaporates common sense. Young women now all grown up mingle with bears and pigs and there’s a make-out session over there, some guy being creepy over here. Drunk girlfriend claims abuse, whispering “It’s not as glamorous as it seems.”

Was it ever?

Photobooth flash, piercing the darkness clean.

VidCon, reflecting the emerging digital entertainment ecosphere. Started eight years ago as a low-key community on a site pre-Google, now infiltrated by corporate suits and polo shirts.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is more to the industry than YouTube’s robot choreography.

Popping up: tools for crowd funding and subscriber platforms. The “multi-channel networks” known as MCNs… a bizarre mix of ad network and talent management. Wanna-be stars struggle to keep their head above water, among brand deals and contract disputes. There are even lawsuits.

Older businessmen sulk over deals unrealized or gone sour. More money, more problems. That ancient storyline continues. Financial growth so substantial, publications like TheVideoInk, NewMediaRockstars and Tubefilter come into existence.

VidCon is more than uploading yourself, it’s about having a high quality BRAND! Catchphrase catastrophe, live from the horse’s mouth.

Trusted family friendly Orabrush was the first ever sponsor years ago, don’t you know… Tech-savvy #humblebrag.

Teens eagerly clean their dirty tongues with spiky tools, bad breath be gone.

 Brand, shmand loyalty… TV-based Discovery, recently acquired a chunk of MCN Revision3, brings the biggest display. A spectacle you can’t miss! A 52 foot inflatable shark from shark week that chomps and shreds.

Group countdown on a cardboard cut-out of Twilight vampire Edward… who is too nimble for giant teeth. “He refuses to die,” the crowd murmurs. Daily Grace keeps face.

VidCon is where a couch cushion saturated with web celebrity farts is saved from the jaws of marketed destruction by a gentle fan.

Signatures intact, he is sheepish of his newly acquired treasure.

VidCon is for fans, family and friends. For fame and rising stars, for big business, brands. Laughter, hugs and tears. Drunk mistakes, dance parties under the stars. VidCon is love of video, of digital creation and experimentation, the future of entertainment.

It ends on Sunday or beyond, once you’ve made it back home. A selfie, a vlog, blog, compilation, some digital and public affirmation.