YouTuber Tana Mongeau set up her very own convention on the same weekend as VidCon after being banned from the event.
But her rebellious convention turned into a total disaster – with some dubbing it the Fyre Festival of YouTuber events.
Considering Fyre Festival ended up with thousands of people expecting a luxury festival being trapped on an island with cheese sandwiches – not ideal.
Tana's festival TanaCon was cancelled on the second day after 15,000 unregistered guests showed up at the Anaheim event.
The 20-year-old was banned from VidCon after years of showing up to the convention with hundreds of fans, despite not being a booked guest, so decided to hold her own convention on the same weekend and in the same location as VidCon – a weekend event boasting appearances by stars including Liza Koshy, Dodie, Elle Mills, Miranda Sings and Elijah Daniel.
Tana promised that the bulk of 5,000 tickets available would be free, while VIP tickets sold for $65 would include line skipping, private meet and greets and 'a gift bag worth more than quadruple the price of the whole ticket'.
However, upon arriving at TanaCon, attendees complained that the convention consisted of no activities in 'one hallway', while it took some people four hours to get inside.
Many YouTube fans waited for hours in the sun without water, and posted pictures and videos of the sunburn they got while queuing.
And those impressive gift bags VIP guests were promised? Apparently all they contained were a wristband, some stickers and a condom.
So needless to say, people were annoyed.
On day one of TanaCon, the company behind it, Good Times, announced that it was being cut short due to safety concerns after running into 'major capacity issues'.
And the next day, Good Times announced that TanaCon was being cancelled.
They said: 'Due to an overwhelming and unexpected response of over 15,000 unregistered guests arriving to the venue Friday morning, unfortunately, inclusivity to everyone became a safety hazard for the exact people we wanted to accommodate.
'At this point in time there is no way to continue our weekend at TanaCon as is without risking the safety of our featured creators.'
The organisers promised refunds for all those with tickets, but said they would come through in 30 days.
Tana has since spoken out, apologising for the disastrous event.
She tweeted: 'My intentions with Tanacon were incredibly pure & I truly thought that I had everything on lock. I was told a lot that didn't end up happening. I was truly under the impression that we were selling to capacity & took it as far as speaking with several ppl very high up at marriott but to be real- I didn't expect that many people to show up outside. which in hindsight was dumb as fuck. it was the same days as vidcon and I should've prepared better. regardless of if people were telling me different, tanacon is attached to ME. and I take full responsibility.
'I am so grateful that the beginning of tanacon was incredible inside. inclusivity, people meeting their favs, etc. but that doesn't excuse what was happening outside. which is why we shut it down. I am heartbroken to have postponed today however I would've been more heartbroken if I let that security mess continue. thank you to everyone who supported me & my movement of the creators having a voice & meeting your favs for free.
'But I truly apologize for not executing it better. planning a convention for the first time in a few months was the most impulsive thing I've ever done. but I don't want to give up & am not negating anything I said previously. if I were to give up- that would be everything I'm against & letting the big corporations win… I want to make change and am going to continue to work my ass off to do it.
'I refuse to give up on this. but I still will be held accountable & take full blame. this taught me so fucking much & I know that I will be doing things much differently in the future. I can't wait to do something for fans, for free, in a fucking arena with 17x the security & a different, better approach at ticket sales, lines, etc. we are now preparing for any response. I wanna take this time to continue to learn. [sic].'
Tana, whose birthday was on what was meant to be the final day of TanaCon, continued: 'My heart is shattered & I'm trying to pick up the pieces. the sunburns, the money and time spent, people waiting outside, everything is so fucked up and I want to talk about it.
'I just want to clarify that i want to answer every single question any one has and be fully transparent with everything good times told me. I refuse to hold back because I also have so many questions as to things I was lied to about and this is so hard for me considering that I want to and will take full blame for this. No matter who told me what, I could've been smarter. i should've researched further. I shouldn't have trusted someone everyone told me not to.'
Tana has filmed a video with Shane Dawson explaining the debacle, which has yet to be uploaded.
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