how it started..

United We Stream was the first of its kind in the U.K.

Implementation

From gaining concept approval from the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham in March 2020, the GMCA team, led by the region’s Night Time Economy Adviser Sacha Lord, worked relentlessly to take a fundraising concept which had just launched in Berlin by their club commissioner Lutz Leichsenring, to begin live broadcasting in ten days time.

The team of five, with all different skill sets, were starting from total scratch with no budget, so planning was intense to say the least!

This involved risk assessments to ensure that all activity could be delivered safely, in a COVID-secure, lockdown compliant way, securing The Met in Bury to be our host venue, we built a website, created social assets, partnerships via local business relationships and managed logistics for filming and production (during a full lockdown - so it wasn’t exactly straightforward).

The team approached dozens of promoters, artists, performers and DJs, and our comms lead spent weeks writing press releases, speaking to media, creating social content and produced a comms strategy.

 Creativity

From the outset with United We Stream, the team wanted to ensure diversity of programming.

Between us we produced a Black Lives Matter campaign and showcased local boutique festivals Moovin and Head for the Hills, renowned club nights such as Homoelectric and Funkademia, and some of the best cultural organisations in Greater Manchester: Contact Theatre, Brighter Sounds and Manchester Jazz Festival.

United We Stream’s Headstock Festival was a music and mental wellbeing event to raise awareness of male suicide. The livestream was held on the 30th anniversary of the death of Joy Division's lead singer - Ian Curtis, and featured New Order, Elbow, Kodaline, Mark Lanegan and Brandon Flowers from The Killers.

The team produced a special commemorative show to mark the third anniversary of the Manchester Arena attack, and arranged a socially distant performance in MediaCity’s piazza by former Coronation Street actress Catherine Tyldesley and the Manchester Survivors Choir who were desperate to perform together safely to mark the day, this was followed by an exclusive, rousing DJ set from Spice Girl, Melanie C.

We even managed to persuade our Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham* to part in a live DJ battle with his counterpart in Liverpool, Metro Mayor, Steve Rotherham. The mayors played an hour's set each, spinning classic tracks from the Merseybeat and Madchester eras, as well as more recent hits with all money raised going to their chosen charities.

(*Andy needed no persuading at all!)

For the Manchester Pride festival, the team strived for this to be as authentic as possible to the real thing, this included producing a 'virtual parade' and socially distant version of the traditional HIV candlelight remembrance vigil.

Local DJs, creatives and dancers from Wigan collaborated with us to create a unique Boxing Day Fancy Dress show to capture the spirit of the annual party tradition that has taken place in Wigan every year, for the last 42 years.

For our FAC51 Hacienda NYE 24 hour House Party, we cross-posted to an incredible 76 global partners, had DJs performing live all over the world, trended number one in the U.K for hours on Twitter, and premiered the ‘Virtual Haçienda'. This was a precise virtual reality replica of the club by the club's original architect, using the latest digital technology.

The audiences reached by a core team of six during this nine-month project would have filled Manchester Arena 1000+ times.

Live streaming has often been considered as poor substitute for the 'real thing', but our team cracked the code of creating memorable, interactive, live streamed experiences, that were curated by, and featured, diverse artists and organisations, enabling mancunian culture to be enjoyed globally by millions.

Our egalitarian approach to programming, where DJs from clubs in Wigan Town Centre were given equal billing to global superstars and established orchestras, created a safe space for the audience to experiment. There was no notion of high and low culture, and people trusted United We Stream enough to enjoy cultural content they might not have experienced before.

We empowered artists and curators to achieve their creative potential, reach new audiences, and develop their practice in the digital sphere – during the most difficult of times.

Results

The team constantly pushed creative boundaries to find fun, innovative yet safe ways to entertain and engage their audience. Viewers embraced a 'new normal' to watch their favourite club night of DJs, unfold live before them on their living room television, while happily supporting local good causes. All shows were curated by, and featured, diverse artists and organisations from Greater Manchester and enjoyed globally by millions.

In nine months, UWS produced 48 original live shows, and had more than 20 million views.

The project raised £583,000 and supported over 100 freelancers and cultural organisations with ‘solidarity grants’ and 30 charities got valuable exposure and donations including: Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy, Manchester Mind, Albert Kennedy Trust, LCR Cares, Eat Well MCR, St John’s Hospice and the GM Mayor’s Charity, supporting rough sleepers.