Over the weekend, a whole host of our favourite YouTubers made their way to Birmingham’s Genting Arena for the very first HelloWorld. Described as an “immersive live experience”, HelloWorld gave fans the chance to see the YouTube world come to life through a variety of interactive stages, finishing off with a huge show.
HelloWorld might be over for this year, but we’ve still got plenty of exclusive bits to share with you. On Saturday, we caught up with YouTubers KSI and Saffron Barker. Here’s what they had to say about their involvement with the event and more.
KSI
KSI is not just a YouTuber – he’s a successful rapper, comedian, and actor too. He has released four EPs, with his latest Disstracktions reaching number one in the UK RnB charts. He is currently working towards a big boxing match with Joe Weller.
On HelloWorld
I’m going to be doing a few things here and there, I’m going to be meeting fans, playing a few games with a few people and performing!
On his musical inspirations
For me, DMX just cos of his energy. Obviously now he’s not doing so well but he was a huge inspiration for me. I used to listen to a lot of RnB, Usher used to be a huge inspiration. Rapping wise, obviously Eminem was sick lyrically, he always raises the bar. Those are the main people for me.
On his preparations for his fight with Joe Weller
It’s going very good. I’m doing a lot of training, rowing, swimming, obviously a lot of boxing as well. Just keeping fit constantly, like every day giving 100%, making sure I destroy Joe [laughs]. Legit it’s going to be a good fight, trust me.
Saffron Barker
Saffron Barker is a lifestyle vlogger who keeps us entertained with her beauty, fashion and challenge videos. She also vlogs daily over on her second channel. Saffron’s personality definitely shines through in her videos – can we be best friends with her?!
On her HelloWorld involvment
I have a lot of different things going on! So I’m doing challenges throughout the day against the other YouTubers like YouTube Wars which is SO exciting, I’m always up for a challenge as I’m very competitive. I’m doing that throughout the day, and then in the evening I’ll be showing the challenges that I’ve done throughout the day and doing the final challenge which is the selfie challenge. I love a good selfie so that’s going to be so much fun. That’s with the audience involved too!
On her Primark x Saffy B collection
I’m absolutely buzzing. I’ve been doing that all week so it’s manic, manic, manic. It’s probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. The whole Primark team have been amazing. Everyone’s loving the range. [In terms of concept] It’s pretty much all me, they were like ‘do what YOU want, we’re going to go with it’, so they were such a good team to work with.
On her personal highlight of 2017
My highlight would be hitting a million on my main channel as it’s such a surreal moment. I feel like when you’re doing YouTube, once you hit that number I feel like you’ve kinda ‘made it’. That was my ‘made it’ for me so when I hit that number it was the best thing ever. It was so strange as well because it was so close for such a long time, and I was like “this is going to be really cool but I’ve basically got it now anyway”, but when the day came I just flooded into tears, it was amazing.