YouTube FanFest Indonesia 2015

Beautiful people!

Satu lagi mimpi gue sebagai Fangirl yang jadi kenyataan. YouTube FanFest (#YTFFID) akhirnya di adakan pertama kalinya di Indonesia! 2009 lalu, gue terjun bebas ke dunia YouTube. Blame Shane Dawson! Yes, I know, semua orang suka nonton YouTube. Semua orang sering nonton YouTube. But there are certain people who watch YouTube... differently. Religiously. Dari Shane Dawson, menjalarlah keranjingan gue akan YouTube ke YouTubers lain. Sejak itu pula gue sangat memimpikan YouTube-related events di adakan di Indonesia, semacam VidCon, PlaylistLive, Summer in the City, atau YouTube FanFest. Tahun 2014 lalu, acara penuh YouTuber pertama kalinya di adakan di Indonesia. Baca disini. Saat YTFFID di umumkan, I literally freaked out! Gue standby sebelum penjualan tiket di mulai. And I was a lucky bastard who got a pair of tickets! It sold out in 10 seconds!

Even more, gue menghadiri press conference! You have no idea how I felt. My dream came true, with some sparkling surprises. Semua line-up YTFFID ada di prescon. I was living my dream. Meskipun YouTubers yang datang bukan yang sangat gue gilai (mostly vloggers). Seperti biasa, gue ambil posisi strategis! Paling depan! Sungguh bertolak belakang sama jaman kuliah yang selalu pilih bangku di belakang. I love YouTube that much, sampe gue kegirangan bisa ketemu Direktur YouTube Asia-Pasifik. Rasanya banyak banget yang pengen gue tanyakan ke beliau, tapi sayang, sesi Q and A cuma sama YouTubers. I swear I had several eye contacts with Kurt Hugo! Tapi waktu SkinnyIndonesian24 muncul, eh gue malah terfokus ke mereka. Andovi sadar, dan dia bergaya-bergaya tengil dong ke kamera gue, tapi cuma dapet 1 shot. 

Sadar kamera!

Gue sempat bertanya ke para YouTubers internasional tentang fenomena YouTubers bikin buku dan apakah mereka mau bikin juga. Macy dan Bethany lah yang menjawab pertanyaan gue. I got so excited when Beth mentioned Tyler Oakley yang baru aja ngerilis bukunya, BINGE.

Setelah prescon selesai, gue langsung nyamperin SkinnyIndonesian24 yang lagi ngobrol sama pak Direktur. Saat Jovial masih sibuk ngobrol, Andovilah yang ngeladenin gue. Gue ceritalah bahwa gue subscriber mereka dan rela berjam-jam nontonin video gila mereka. Andovi was like "Kajo! Dia suka nontonin video kita!" Jovial langsung nyamperin gue dan mereka berdua ngenalin gue ke pak Direktur. 

Gue langsung nyamperin Kurt Hugo, yang buru-buru keluar ruangan karna mau rehearsal. Nggak bisa ngobrol banyak. Gue cuma minta selfie dan basa-basi "break a leg tonight!" blabla. Dan tos-tosan. Selain SkinnyIndonesian24, Kurt Hugo adalah yang paling gue tunggu penampilannya. Meskipun tahun lalu udah nonton aksi dia. Dari Kurt, gue beralih ke Sam Tsui. Ini nih YouTuber yang paling rajin ke Indonesia. Gue ngobrol sama dia, dan otak gue sangat berkabut, gue lupa ngobrol apa aja sama dia. Line yang paling berkesan mungkin adalah waktu gue cerita ke dia kalo gue udah nontonin video dia sejak 2010, dan dia nanya "How did it happen?" Gue ceritalah waktu gue tinggal di dorm dan temen-temen ngenalin dia ke gue. Dia bilang "Thank you very much! Tell your friends I said hi!" Parah. Sweet abis! Dear Monde dan Irene, that one's for you.

Selesai tos-tosan sama Sam, gue nyamperin Bethany Mota. Nggak pake ngobrol. Cuma selfie dan basa-basi break a leg juga. Ini cewek manis luar biasa! Macam langit dan bumi sama gue. Tadinya setelah selfie sama Bethany, gue mau nyamperin Macy. Tapi ternyata dia keluar ruangan saat gue lagi sama Beth.

Gue nonton bareng Dundhee. He's like my half-brain. Jodoh banget dalam dunia perYouTube-an. Kami salah strategi. Satu setengah jam sebelum mulai, kami udah ikutan ngantri, dan ternyata kami kelaparan. Dan ngantrinya lama. Mulai dari kami histeris, trus bosen, ngobrol ngalor-ngidul, sampe lemes kelaparan. Tapi rasa lapar terlupakan waktu show di mulai. Saat dia jerit-jerit liat Mike Tompkins, gue malah cinta produk lokal. Yes, da Lopez brothers! Gue kegirangan waktu mereka bawain "Bekasi." Gelar ter-Bekasi gue di kantor rasanya meningkat 1000x. Kolaborasi semua YouTubers itu selalu bikin gue merinding parah! Rasanya magical, orang-orang yang biasanya cuma gue liat di layar laptop, sekarang bisa gue liat secara langsung!

I was featured in Dundhee's vlog!

Can't Save Myself From AS IT IS /\\\

Beautiful People!

Have you heard about As It Is, a British band who was recently signed by Fearless Records? They're one of my most favorite bands lately. Just because. I first found this band through their vocalist, Patty Walters. He's friends with Emma Blackery and Luke Cutforth, my favorite YouTubers. However, I didn't really notice him, until The Vamps released a YouTubers version of Oh Cecelia (You're Breaking My Heart).

I thought "damn! This dude can sing!" I started digging his YouTube channel and absolutely fell in love with his covers.

I later found out that he's in a band called As It Is. Can't Save Myself was flipping dope! I couldn't get enough of this band. And! They're all funny. Who doesn't like funny people? They do great things together, but they also do stupid things together! Gosh I love these boys! When they were signed to Fearless Records, damn I couldn't be prouder! I felt like a proud momma. Don't get me started about when Patty presented an award on APMAs 2015. My sweet little heart! There were plenty of fans telling their stories about meeting As It Is during Warped Tour and how nice they were. I'm so happy for them! There was also a post from Ben saying when he was younger, one of his friends said he wasn't supposed to come to Reading Festival because he wasn't cool enough. He was also kicked out of his old band because he was not good enough. Meh. Who's laughing now?! Success is indeed the best revenge and that inspires me to this day. 

Shoutout to the maker!

When they released their first album, I felt like the happiest girl alive! I wrote an article about them for CreativeDisc.com straight away. As It Is is like the fusion of some of my favorite bands: All Time Low, My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory, etc.

When dad was in hospital and I stayed with him for like 2 months, As It Is and Set It Off were two bands whose songs I played the most to soothe my soul and I thank them for that. I wish I could tell them about that and thank them properly for helping me going through the hard times. I wish to meet them and see them live one day! I believe they'll come and play in Indonesia. One day, my friend, one day.

Dear Patty, Andy, Ben, Ali and Foley, thank you so much for everything. I wish you guys all the happiness in the world. Cheers!