A Weekend 4Fans

I’m sure I’m correct in saying that everyone knows about Youtube - but did you know that there are several Youtube celebrity “Let’s Players”, who record themselves playing video games, eventually gaining money and fame from it?

The 4fans convention, from the 4th – 6th April was a convention which celebrated such Youtubers. Held in the massive PVA Expo Letňany, alongside several other exhibitions, including For Pets, For Kids and For Teens, 4fans boasted several huge names in Let’s Players, with several Czech and Slovakian let’s players attending.

Alongside the Youtubers, there were several technology demos, including a good few Xbox ones set up with different games, and two separate tables of PCs and Alienware Laptops, allowing con-goers to show off their skills in any game of their choosing- personally, I saw people playing League of Legends, Battlefield, and FIFA, amongst others.

In the midst of this hustle and bustle, there were two stages set up, showcasing many different things (pretty much all in Czech) with different visuals from different games. The main focus of these presentations seemed to be Minecraft, which probably explains why the audience was made up mostly of children.

I decided to attend this event on the Saturday after one of the Youtubers who was performing tweeted about it- and with him being my favourite Youtuber, I really did have to go. For one day ticket it cost me 450CZK, which included access to all the other exhibitions- although they didn’t really take my fancy. I struggled through the Czech presentations until the main reason I attended took the stage.

For those who haven’t heard of Tobuscus/Toby Turner- he’s an American Youtuber who’s crazy multi-talented, producing vlogs, Let’s Plays, podcasts, songs, cartoons and is even developing a video game based on his animated series. For 4fans he took the stage to sing improvised love songs to some of the girls of the audience, which caused much amusement as none of the girls had any idea what he was saying, needing GoGo (A Slovakian Youtuber, who’s apparently a big deal here) to translate for him.

At the end of the set, Toby was giving away Tobuscus slap bracelets- and yours truly received one! Mainly because I fought my way through the throngs of children to the front and informed Toby that yes, I would kill for the last slap bracelet- which obviously earned me the prize. I got to meet him after too, which made my weekend. If I’d not been short of cash, I might have even considered going on the Sunday just to pester him again, but since I’d already gotten his autograph and a (very terrible) picture with him, I thought I’d just leave it at that.

So this is yet another amazing experience to add to the ever-growing list of those that I’ve had in Prague. More information on 4fans can be found at 4fans.cz, including a full list of the Youtubers that attended- and if you watch some of their videos from the event, I might even be in some!