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| Insomnia is for the gamers, and the families of gamers |
INSOMNIA is for the gamers, and the families of gamers. Small children walk around with foam Minecraft swords while holding their parents hands excited that they got a selfie with Syndicate.
In a few years time they will be eating pizza with their friends in the LAN halls.
Amongst the crowds you will stumble across the odd video game character as cosplaying is part of Insomnia. Costume and Play provided special guests representing props, sewing, modeling, performance and lot of activities The workshops help people who want to get involved and help children to dress up like a creeper. Jess Banks of Costume and Play explains that “Cosplay gives people the opportunity to dress as the characters they love, and get the opportunity to become that character for a weekend.” Speedrunning is also a feature at Insomnia where you can watch gamers complete Silent Hill in one hour. Insomnia features daily tournaments in Mortal Kombat and FIFA where visitors for the day can enter for a chance to win cash prizes.
The rise of eSports can be seen among the youngest generation. The food stands in the arena are the same that serves Coventry FC and Wasps RFC. Walking through the underbelly of the terraces in front of me was two dads with their sons. The Dads noticed that you can see the pitch through the see-through doors. They stopped the kids to go "hey look through here, you can see the football pitch". They were met with a response of the DOTA finals were starting and they wanted to get good seats. The insomnia festival has grown dramatically over the years and they have filled out the Richoh arena quicker than they expected. The big news announced at Insomnia 55 is that Insomnia 56 will be held in Birmingham at the NEC. Taking place on the 11th – 14th of December 2015, Insomnia56 represents the next stage of growth for the UK’s biggest gaming festival.
Insomnia is the UK’s biggest gaming festival where all our welcome and there is something for every type of gamer. The event is much like Glastonbury, with video games taking the place of music.
It is a haven for gamers, siblings and everything in between. The beauty of insomnia is that it caters for all.
Typically at these events it is populated by young males between 18-30, however Insomnia is incredibly family friendly.
Founder Craig Fletcher has been running eSport events since 1994 with Doom 2 and grew events from 300 players to the thousands that attend now.
The Minecraft events they have run in the past have been the catalyst for the festival to no longer cater just for the LAN crowd and open children to gaming culture.
Walking the halls you can see the evolution of the gamering children as they grow up. The youngsters obsession with minecraft will evolve into Dota, League and CS GO. Insomnia is the perfect family environment in which this can grow.
Craig explains that “ We have seen the transition from the kids that are 13/14 growing up and bringing their PCs or consoles and going into the LAN hall. For an entire generation games are a fact of life, they are a social glue.”
At its core Insomnia is a LAN party festival. This is when gamers meetup and play games over a local network as opposed to the internet. The benefit is no blame on internet connections, lag and ping. This is where gamers come to prove their worth. It is also a great chance to socialise.
The LAN areas are the safe haven for the hardcore. These large halls are filled with banks of PCs and consoles. Their is a silent intensity as you walk through of concentration wired on energy drinks and pizza.
Occasionally you hear the odd scream of victory and growls of defeat. The atmosphere is incredibly civil and friendly.
The exhibition area is not large like Gamescom and Eurogamer but by no means are you getting less.
New games were able to be played at Insomnia 55, including FIFA 16, Forza, Starfox and Mario Maker. The queues for these are short in comparison to other trade shows.
Ricoh arena is a great venue for the event. It is clearly busy but is not crowded.
Craig is a gamer and wants insomnia to be for the gamers
“We want to make sure that people aren't standing in lines for five hours a day. I want insomnia to be an event i would attend and i dont want to stand in line for five hours.”
“we have always been careful of how many tickets we sell because one we don't want it to be crush. And we want people to have a really good experience with the amount of content so we have grown in chunks.
The big draw for the festival this year was shows by famous YouTubers such as Syndicate, Yogcast and Sidemen. Although they are bona fide celebrities of the culture they will stand outside while lines of teenage girls and boys form to get a selfie with them.
The Indie tent features numerous developers that are showing off their new games. The new crop of British developers continue the innovation and entrepreneurship that made games such as Elite, Championship Manager and Grand Theft Auto. They are passionate about their creations and are more than willing for you to play them and give feedback.
One of the busiest places is the retro zone where you could play on all the great consoles from the past from the popular N64 to the cult NeoGeo supplied by Retroactive. Their are Super Nintendos, NeoGeos, Jaguar, Nintendo 64 and eveything in betweeen including obscure peripherals such as the Dreamcast fishing controller.
This is the area where parents educate their kids on the games they grew up with. There are lectures from parents about how Goldeneye is the superior shooter compared to Call of Duty.
Incredible audience here at the packed #esports Arena @MultiplayEsport #Insomnia55! @ChokeGaming vs @EZSKINZ pic.twitter.com/KppWCuweuy
— Matt Andrews (@Matt_Andrews) August 30, 2015
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