Ejoh

The worlds largest computer festival and LAN party, Dreamhack, starts off today. It is a huge event which will draw approximately 15 000 visitors which will bring around 8 300 computers. The festival is held in Jönköping, Sweden, this weekend and is almost the biggest event in Sweden, all categories.

Dreamhack started off 12 years ago in the city Malung with only thirty participants and now the event has grown so much people from outside Sweden come visit it. I am currently living in Jönköping and thinks this is great. Lots of people discover our city and we become internationally know. I am not going to Dreamhack though, mostly because I don’t play computer games. I have other reasons too which you will read about further down.

With the increasing number of visitors coming, companies have opened their eyes for the potential of Dreamhack. They gather for showing of their products and look for new employees. This year lots of other arrangements will be held too. The Swedish Minister of Infrastructure will talk a little concerning new technology and the Ministry of Defense have arranged a display of flying.

Look at this webcam to see how big Dreamhack is. Note: that it’s only one of three hall.

School will close

Like the title say a school here in Jönköping will actually close due to this LAN event. The reason is that no students would come to school those days. They’ll ask for permission to go on Dreamhack and if they’re denied they will go anyway. The school, John Bauer, is very computer oriented and many of its students learn IT. To draw new young people to it John Bauer give away a computer to every person starting at the school.

The school is very controversial because the students are practically allowed to play computer games during classes. I say practically because the teachers have other things to do and don’t notice what they’re doing.

Other schools in the area have less  students wanting to go to Dreamhack. They have however been granted permission to go if they do extra schoolwork at home.

In my personal opinion this is outrageous. Sure, this is a great event and very fun attending but I can’t see the need for giving 700 students two days off for it.

Cleaning up after Dreamhack

Last year I was invited to do some cleaning after Dreamhack for profit. I had nothing else to do so I said yes. Me and some other friends thought we’d be making some fast cash. Since we love cash we didn’t expect it to be so bad it wasn’t worth it. It was that bad, or at least almost. When we entered one of the big halls where the event is held we were absolutely stunned. I have, never in my entire life seen so much garbage in one place. The tables and the floors were filled with a twenty centimeter layer of junk. Coke packages, broken keyboards, paper, hamburgers. Everything had a foul smell.

That day, I decided Dreamhack was not for me. Imagine sitting next to those disgusting things for three days.