At SitC 2012, we hosted the event in a venue with a capacity of 2,500. On the Saturday of the weekend-long event, we were forced to turn away almost 1,000 people who had queued at the door for a couple of hours, because the venue was just too full.
In September of this past year, YouTube user Tobuscus announced he was holding a gathering in Hyde Park. Over 2,000 of his fans attended and despite protests to give him space, the crowd mobbed him to the point where he was pinned against a fence, and had to climb over it and jump in a taxi to avoid being hurt.
And just last moth, another gathering was hosted in Hyde Park. The Festive Gathering again saw almost 2,000 YouTubers crowding the people they look up to, including Bertie Gilbert, who had to be escorted by police to safety.
This is the reality of YouTube gatherings now. There are just… too many people. Everyone and no one is to blame at the same time. It’s a very complex situation because you can’t, you cannot just tell certain people to not attend. Especially to a free event in a public space where they have a chance of meeting their favourite YouTubers.
This is why it is imperative we initiate a ticketing system for SitC this year. It is fast becoming the biggest annual UK gathering, and we have done everything we can to provide a service where people can come and enjoy interacting with like-minded content creators, and meet their idols. We want to keep doing that. But as long as the numbers keep growing, it can’t be done safely in a public space like a park, and it can’t be done in a small venue where people may travel many miles to attend, only to be turned away.
We want to host SitC this year in a space big enough to do everything we have done over the past few years, without disappointing people and also controlling the numbers to avoid endangering anyone’s safety. But we can’t just find somewhere like that for free. The money has to come from somewhere.
Personally we believe we’ve done pretty well these past four years to cater to the numbers we had, for the most part without charging a penny. But this is the reality of the event now. If we can’t hold it at a large enough venue, we can’t hold it at all. Because we refuse to compromise the safety and wellbeing of innocent people whose only crime is wanting to be a part of the huge and diverse community that we have created over the years.
With this in mind, however, we appreciate all your feedback and we do still want to make this gathering great, especially since it will now be a paid event. So we would like to finish off by announcing that we will be reducing the ticket price to £10. Anyone who has already purchased a ticket will be refunded, as the change in the system means you will have to repurchase.
Also just a couple more things to clear up -
- Tickets are for admission to SitC over the entire weekend (i.e. don’t buy two for two days).
- The rumour that SitC will only be 18+ is a complete lie. Nowhere have we stated this and in no way is it true. Please refrain from fuelling the rumour mill, no-one but us knows more than what’s already been announced.
Thanks for all your support over the past few years, and see you in August!
-Tom, Liam, Dave, Jazza and Luke
