Joey Graceffa, Hannah Hart and LaurDIY are just three of the 75 “Featured Creators” that will attend Viacom’s 10th annual VidCon U.S.
The company announced its first round of Featured Creators on Tuesday morning, which includes VidCon founders John Green and Hank Green, along with Miles McKenna, Tré Melvin, Karina Garcia, Jon Cozart, MyLifeasEva, Ricky Dillon, Safiya Nygaard, and Rafi and Benny Fine. The first round slate is available for viewing at VidCon.com.
To commemorate VidCon‘s 10th anniversary, the company is also bringing back creators who were at the first VidCon, including some of the web’s earliest viral stars like Tay Zonday, who went viral after producing and singing an original he dubbed Chocolate Rain, a video that now has more than 100 million views. Other “Founding Featured Creators” will include Michael Buckley, Julia Nunes and Brittany Louise Taylor.
“I’m so excited about our Featured Creator lineup for for our 10th Annual VidCon US. We’re bringing back a bunch of what we’re calling Founding Featured Creators, some of the creators and speakers that were at the first ever VidCon, for a reunion,” Julia Maes, VidCon executive producer. “Some of these people have been active on YouTube (and coming to VidCon) for a decade and some have moved their careers into different directions, but regardless we’re grateful to all of them for acknowledging how important this new medium was so long ago and wanted to honor them in some way.”
The VidCon event is divided into three signature “tracks”: the Community Track, a festival that aims to connect fans with their favorite online video creators via parties, panels, concerts and meet & greets; the Creator Track, where creators and experts educate their peers and the industry about online video, including insights on how to create better content, secrets of growing audience and subscribers, and strategies to meet and collaborate with fellow creators; and the Industry Track, which brings top executives from the digital and entertainment industries together to discuss the state of the online video industry.
In the past, the Industry Track has hosted speakers such as Instagram’s cofounder Mike Krieger, Facebook’s head of talent partnerships Bree Nguyen, YouTube’s chief products officer Neil Mohan, and Pinterest’s head of content and creator products David Temple.
Originally started in 2010, VidCon was acquired by Viacom in February 2018. The first VidCon U.S. after the acquisition welcomed 74,000 attendees that included a mix of fans, creators, brands and industry leaders. The company has also expanded its reach internationally and has events in Australia and Europe. VidCon estimates that in 2018, VidCon US (Anaheim, CA), VidCon Australia (Melbourne), and VidCon Europe (Amsterdam) had more than 90,000 fans in attendance.
Tickets for the 10th annual VidCon US, which will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center July 10-13, are now on sale.