| DreamHack | |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Winter and Summer |
| Location(s) | Jönköping Sweden |
| Participants | ~13,000 BYOC plus ~7.000 other visitors |
| Genre | LAN and computer festival |
| Website | http://www.dreamhack.se |
DreamHack is the worlds largest computer festival,[1] a local area network gathering with live concerts and competitions in digital art and gaming. It's arranged twice per year at the Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre in Jönköping, Sweden. It holds the world record (as recognized by the Guinness Book of Records and Twin Galaxies) for the world's largest LAN party and computer festival, as well as the worlds fastest Internet connection, and the record in most generated traffic.[2]
In the year 2007 the founders of DreamHack received a diploma of honor from the municipality of Jönköping for being important to business, education and society of the local community.
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The winter event consistently has approximately 25% more visitors than the summer event, but in other respects they are quite similar. Both events are 72 hours (stretching over 4 days), and have scheduled activity around the clock, every day.[3]
As of winter 2011, the event covers the entire Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre as well as the neighbouring ice hockey arena and racket sports centre. The total number of participants were 20.984, of which ~500 were crew.[2]
Attendees' ages range from elementary school to senior citizens, though the average age is 16-17. Ten percent are female, though this figure is old and appears to have risen since. People arrive from all over the world to participate.
The event consists of five major components: the festival, the gaming competitions, the digital arts competitions, the live concerts and the expo.
| The festival | Every seated participant get a table (60 cm deep and 83 cm wide), a chair, a power socket and a LAN socket through which DreamHack supplies the fastest Internet connection in the world.[2] To this place they bring their own equipment of choice, usually a display or TV and a computer or console. Some bring their own office chairs to substitute the ones supplied. Since there is activity around the clock, participants can sleep in the adjacent sleeping halls, to which they bring their own sleeping equipment. |
| The gaming competitions | With a total price pool of over a million SEK, the DreamHack esports competitions attract professional players from all over the world, most notably South Korea. From DreamHack, about one hundred different video streams are broadcasted over the Internet, of which most cover the esports competitions. 21 of them are produced by DreamHack crew, the rest are independent and include Swedish national TV. These are watched by people from all continents in the world, and at DHW11 the number of unique viewers were over 1.6 million, which is another record.[4] |
| The digital arts competitions | In the DreamHack Kreativ competition participants compete in creating all things digital, including photographs, drawings, music, 3D-models, demos, games, animations and movies. It is for many the most important part of the event, since competitions of this kind are very rare, and places where these artists get to meet their audience in person are even rarer. Some participants spend the entire event producing a creative works, such as a movie or piece of music. The hours long final ceremony, during which all submissions are presented on the huge screens and sound system of MainStage, draws a big crowd and is highly appreciated by the audience. |
| The live concerts | Every evening and night there are big musical acts on MainStage. This aspect of DreamHack have increased dramatically in popularity, and is a major factor in the rise in sale of daypasses, hinting that future concerts will be even grander. |
| The expo | Many companies present their products in the expo area, and it is common for big game development studios to allow visitors to play the games currently under development. There are also various seminars and lectures, and a shop where you can buy most computer equipment. |
DreamHack is arranged with the help of about 500 volunteers, set up in Crew Teams. They work in shifts to provide service for the visitors, like the support crew that have a helpdesk where the participants can address their technical problems. The organization also relies on local police and guards from Securitas AB.
The event has broken records many times, Swedish records are marked (SR) and world records are marked (WR).
| Event | Visitors | Unique viewers | Internet speed | Total price pool | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DHW11 | 20,984 (WR)[2] | 1.6 million (WR)[4] | 210 Gbps (WR)[2] | 1,065,500 SEK[5] | First event occupying the ice hockey arena. |
| DHS11 | ~16,000 ? | ~700,000 ? | 20 Gbps[6] | 832,508 SEK[7] | First event with large outdoors activity area and esports tent. |
| DHW10 | 13,608 (WR)[8] | ~200,000 ? | 700,000 SEK[9] | This was the 10th anniversary event. | |
| DHS10 | |||||
| DHW09 | |||||
| DHS09 | |||||
| DHW08 | |||||
| DHS08 | |||||
| DHW07 | 11,060 (WR)[10] | ||||
| DHS07 | |||||
| DHW06 | 9,184 (WR)[11] | ||||
| DHS06 | |||||
| DHW05 | 7,538 | This was the 5th anniversary event. | |||
| DHS05 | |||||
| DHW04 | 5,272 (WR) | ||||
| DHS04 | |||||
| DHW01 | First event in Jönköping. | ||||
| DHW00 | 2,500 (SR) | ||||
| DHW97 | 700 (SR) | This was the first event claiming the swedish record in participants. |
DreamHack began as a small gathering of schoolmates and friends in the basement of an elementary school in Malung in the early '90s. In 1994 it was moved to the school cafeteria and became one of the larger regional demoparties at the time. The 1994 gathering was also the first one to go by the name DreamHack.
In 1997 the event took place at Arena Kupolen in Borlänge and became the largest LAN party of Sweden and the third largest party in Scandinavia at the time. Furthermore, DreamHack 2001 and the upcoming events were held at the Elmia exhibition centre in Jönköping, where it has been since.
Starting the year 2002, DreamHack became a biannual event with DreamHack Summer, aiming for games, taking place in June and DreamHack Winter, slightly more specific for the demo scene, being held during the last weekend of November. This difference has since blurred and perhaps been completely erased.
In 2007, the now fully featured corporation DreamHack AB also began arranging a third event during the late summer, in Skellefteå up the northern coast of Sweden. The Skellefteå event, though a lot smaller with a thousand seats, was sold out by a greater margin than DHW. This event has since been discontinued.
In 2011, DreamHack AB went through a corporate reform, renewing the company administration.