Insomnia Gaming Festival is hoping to increase its number of visitors from 45,000 to 60,000 next year.
The long weekend event, which takes place at the Birmingham NEC every April and August, is returning on April 10th to 13th 2020 with Insomnia66.
Organisers say the most recent event, Insomnia65, also drew a record number of attendees, with many getting involved with esports.
1,117 participants formed 156 teams, to play over 22 tournaments across the four days, winning over £28,000 in cash.
Despite this, there has been some criticism of tournaments like League of Legends falling in stature with fewer established UK teams taking part, though this is perhaps more to do with the fact that the UKLC is offering teams more performance-based rewards than what was around before. For some semi-pro/amateur teams, the costs of attending a LAN tournament nowadays outweigh the benefits.
Insomnia organisers said in a press release that aside from esports, the event provided the stage for several announcements, including FIFA 20’s Volta football, the Ubisoft Experience UK exclusive, as well as premieres from the likes of Borderlands 3, Pokémon Sword & Shield and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
Then there’s also activities like the Retro Zone, VR tech, live action show The Dark Room, a Battle Royale Zone at Insomnia and more.
Phil Crawford, part of Insomnia’s organising team from Player1 Events, said: “It’s been a phenomenal 2019 for Insomnia, with almost 100,000 people joining us this year to embrace all things gaming. Bringing together this online community in real life, to meet face-to-face, share their passion, and celebrate with likeminded individuals is what is so special and why we continue to work as hard as we can to make each one the best it can be.
“Thank you to every single person who joined us for i64 and i65 – we can’t wait to see you at the next one.”
Tickets are on sale for i66 and can be found at insomnia.seetickets.com/tour/insomnia.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
