Minecraft costumes and bewildered parents: a YouTuber at the UK's biggest games event

Yogscast Kim has signed everything from phone covers to a bag of Tabasco sauce, but she's still amazed that fans queue for hours to meet vloggers as they did at Insomnia 58

"You're a lot shorter in real life than I thought!" says the teenager in front of me, grinning nervously. "Well, YouTube makes me look bigger than I am!" I shoot back. It's a terrible line, and given how many times my viewers have enthused about my small height, I should really have thought of a better reply by now. But it's difficult to be sharp when you're into the third hour of signing autographs, smiling for selfies and trying to hear what people are saying over the pounding music coming from a nearby gaming booth. I'm at Insomnia 58, a video games convention that has grown tremendously in the past couple of years. Previously, it was held in one hall of Coventry's Ricoh Arena, before it spilled out into the adjoining football pitch, and now, Insomnia 58 has taken over the Birmingham NEC and is to get even bigger.

Originally, Insomnia was a convention where PC gamers could bring their own PCs and hook them up together in order to play multiplayer video games throughout the night - hence the name. But as Insomnia grew, it started hosting competitive video gaming tournaments, where teams could win big money playing Counter Strike, Call of Duty and StarCraft 2. Now the four-day event has expanded to include Minecraft mini-games, cosplay competitions, merchandise booths, tabletop gaming, video game booths, stage shows and meet and greets with YouTubers such as Syndicate, AmyLee33, The Diamond Minecart, NettyPlays and The Creatures.