Hotel Indigo Manchester – Victoria Station
We were really excited to see the launch of a brand-new hotel in the city, very aptly named Hotel Indigo Manchester. Situated close to Victoria Station and breathing new life into the old Victoria building, Hotel Indigo houses 187 contemporary bedrooms, all with nods to Manchester’s industrial past. As well as the hotel, we also worked on the launch of Mamucium, an exciting new restaurant headed up by Executive Chef, Andrew Green. Mamucium celebrates seasonal flavours, focusing on modern British cuisine, all with a Mancunian twist.
Read Manchester’s Finest review HERE.
Alabama’s All-American Eatery
We relaunched Alabama’s back in February, following on from it closing due to an unfortunate event of a fire in the summer of 2018. Of course, the city was delighted to see the return of the ultimate brunch spot AND the addition of some exciting new dishes on the menu.
The Ivy – Spinningfields Circus Party
April saw the spectacular reopening of The Ivy Spinningfields Roof Garden, following on from the fire in December 2018. The occasion was marked with a super party, seeing a show-stopping big top circus tent positioned outside the restaurant known as ‘The Ivy Circus’. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Fire Fighters Charity.
It was one of Manchester’s most spectacular events, with the Ivy Circus providing guests with high-octane acts including drummers, stilt walkers, knife throwers, jugglers, contortionists, flying aerial performances and for the grand finale, a Greatest Showman medley. VIP guests included Caroline Flack, Laura Whitmore, Lara Stone, Nicola Roberts, Ella Eyre, Kym Marsh and Nikki Sanderson.
The launch of Junkyard Golf Club Liverpool was also another highlight.
Dakota Hotel – Launch
Dakota was the biggest launch in our calendar last year, working on the launch from the onset meant successfully launching Dakota and seeing it thrive last year has been extremely rewarding. Dakota has truly set a new standard in hospitality in the city and that’s been acknowledged by their A-list clientele and the incredible reviews it has received from The Times, Telegraph, Conde Nast Traveller and even Jeremy Clarkson. Notably it also achieved number one spot on Trip Advisor, all of this and its not even been open a year so we’re excited to see what 2020 holds for Dakota.
Our Friends Electrik at The Refuge – May Bank Holiday Weekend
One of the most iconic May Bank Holiday partiers, The Refuge once again smashed it with a spectacular weekend of culture gatherings, hosted by their friends from Electrik. From The Whitworth Gallery takeover, music live sets, make-up master classes with Urban Decay, clothes swaps and alterations by Stitched Up’ ‘wardrobe surgery’, families activities with Our Kids Social, local craft breweries, wellbeing session with lululemon, and much more spread across four days over late May Bank Holiday weekend, The Refuge was the only place to be.
Parklife Festival – Manchester
This year we joined the Parklife team as VIP hosts, which mainly involved greeting and buggying around all VIP guests. A highlight was escorting Ed Sheeran’s lookalike, apparently being the doppelgänger of a celeb gets you far, ‘Ed’s’ Parklife experience involved fans chasing our buggy for high fives and pictures, being brought out onto Temple stage to the crowds delight, and endless compliments all day – “you’re a genius mate”. Have a watch HERE.
Tribe ’19 Festival – Bruntwood – Booth’s Park / Knutsford, Cheshire
We Are Indigo, alongside festival production partners, Ground Control, produced a 1-day 360 festival event for Bruntwood and their staff in the stunning grounds of Booths Park – Knutsford. The brief was to curate, produce and manage a mini-festival for all their workforce throughout the UK, over 1,000 people attended on the day. Activities included a main stage that welcomed world class live acts and DJs such as The Coral, See Thru Hands, Oxford Road, La Discotheque, Jenna & The G’s, Hannah Ashcroft, Mr Wilson’s Second Liners and many many more. Local food vendors included The Ottomen, Margot Pizza, Eat New York with Teacup & Bon Bon Chocolate and Ginger’s Ice-cream Emporium.
In conjunction with Blue Dot Festival, we produced a stunning children’s area that catered for a high number of attendees and their families, these included; Our Kids Social – Arts & Crafts, the touring theatre group – Fabularium, The Crystal Stormtrooper, Slinkies and many more fringe activities. A focus was given to health & wellbeing, with suppliers that included; Form MCR, Pilates hosted by Nisha Srivastava, Family Rave Yoga, Regge Yoga, Form Movement Classes, and a Gong Bath by Jane Blackburn.
Highlights include Cane & Grain 5th birthday party and the launch of Whiskey Down.
Highlights included Wolf at the Door launch, Pride at The Ivy Spinningfields and The Refuge.
We Are Indigo X Ibiza 2019
In September, as the Ibiza season was winding down for the year, the whole team got together to catch up with our clients there and showcase the results we had secured, as well as soaking up the sights and sounds of the island.
Here we stayed at our client, the small and romantic hideaway of Can Sastre, a beautiful agroturismo hotel. Situated just a 10 minute drive away from Ibiza Town in the rural heart of the Island, Can Sastre offers guests a secret slice of paradise.
“Things here feel homespun and instantly relaxing – it’s as good a spot to hide entirely from the rest of the island as it is a launchpad from which to explore.” Conde Nast Traveller
Kick-starting our Ibiza gastronomy tour, we headed to the exquisite IZAKAYA Ibiza, owned by our lovely client THE ENTOURAGE GROUP. A culinary hotspot taking Asian gastronomy to the next level, IZAKAYA combines extravagant Japanese cuisine with a South American twist – resulting creating in some of the most sophisticated and exceptional food we have ever eaten.
I’m excited to dine at the island’s renowned Japanese restaurant, IZAKAYA. Its drool-worthy menu of Japanese dishes with a South American influence includes yellowtail sashimi with huancaína sauce and passionfruit salsa.” Vogue
The following day, ready to soak up some sun, sea and sangria, we headed to a place that radiates Ibizan cool, our client, Cotton Beach Club, ready for a working lunch with a difference. The beautiful all-white restaurant with panoramic views of the Mediterranean and sandy beaches below, Cotton Beach Club is a first-class restaurant offering a menu of fresh sushi, seafood and Mediterranean inspired dishes.
“The see-and-be-seen Cotton Beach Club at the nearby Tarida beach offers one of the best views on the island while dining, namely, sweeping views of the rock outcroppings.” Forbes
We’re delighted with the press coverage we have achieved for our Ibiza portfolio during the 2019 season, looking ahead to summer 2020, we already have exciting plans in place…
Crazy Pedro’s – 5th birthday
Broadwick Live – Depot – Manchester
An incredible project for us in November was with our client Broadwick Live and the Depot – once desolate and decaying area of the city, dramatically transformed into Manchester’s most exciting music venue and home to the Warehouse Project.
The once forgotten space has been brought back to life by Broadwick Live, to create a safe and vibrant destination for people to enjoy, as part of a new model of regeneration and development with subculture at the heart of the story.
Part of a £1billion regeneration project, Depot at Mayfield will provide a platform for a diverse programme of arts, music, industry, culture and community events in a truly unique space. Watch this space…
Global LEGO® art exhibition opens in Manchester: The Art of the brick, by Nathan Sawaya.
It’s not everyday that a globally renowned touring exhibition turns up in the city, but in November, The Art of the Brick® by award-winning artist Nathan Sawaya took up residency at the Great Northern Warehouse in Manchester until April 20th 2020. An incredible exhibition featuring just under 100 pieces of art, made up of more than a million iconic LEGO® bricks! Definitely one to check out.
Hilton House
Hilton House is the Northern Quarter hidden gem and has been brought back to life by CERT Property. They have undertaken renovation work to create a new contemporary office space. It is the latest creative hub, forefront of culture and influence in the neighbourhood.
Richard Kelly – Selected Music Works: 1999-2019
This year is an exciting time for the now Manchester-based photographer Richard Kelly as he’s moved back to the city from London over a year ago. As Richard was settling back in to Manchester, he found a box of old prints from the old days when he used to tour with artists from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, Pete Doherty, John Cooper Clarke and more, including some never-before-seen photographs. This inspired him to put out his first ever solo exhibition entitled ‘Selected Music Works: 1999-2019’ at Colony Ancoats in November (the exhibition is still running now until January 14th – have a nosy around when you’re in the area).
We hosted the launch with a private viewing on the night before the exhibition opens to the public and we had guests from within the music, fashion and art scene in attendance alongside local key press. Read New Sounds Magazine’s interview with Richard here.
HOMOBLOC
Last year’s series was bigger and better than ever, welcoming major names in techno, house, grime, rap, electro, DnB, jungle, as well as nights curated by Aphex Twin, Mura Masa, Highsnobiety, Four Tet + more.
But there was one very special rave in particular, Homobloc, which saw 10,000 souls rave under one roof – a queer block party for all. The team headed there for a (very) premature Christmas party. What better way to celebrate Christmas than in gay utopia – drag queens galore, hundreds of dancers dressed in glitter, feathers, latex (most of which all came off by the end of the night), a tribe carrying placards mocking homophobic slurs, “batty boys do it better”, “filthy gorgeous fudge packer” as well as “God hates Brexit” and “God loves Mandy”. The mega line-up also included sounds from The Black Madonna, Hunee, Róisín Murphy, Honey Dijon, and of course the one and only Krysko. Best Christmas party to date we reckon.
Read The Guardian’s thoughts here and i-D here.
Saatchi / Highsnobiety & WHP Present Sweet Harmony Warehouse Art / Edit
The Sweet Harmony exhibition that tracks the history and influence UK rave culture, originally housed at The Saatchi Gallery, came to Manchester last December for a very special Warehouse / Art Edit, and we were pleased to have been tasked with the job of launching it in collaboration with Highsnobiety and Size?.
With Manchester being the spiritual home of rave, Kobi, co-curator at the Saatchi Gallery was spot on when he said, “it didn’t just make sense for us to bring the exhibition to Manchester, but it was absolutely necessary”.
The Warehouse / Art Edit particularly focuses on the scene in Manchester as well as other Northern rave powerhouses. Taking viewers on a journey from the Acid House days at The Haçienda with Jon Shard’s documentation of legendary gay club night Flesh, dubbed the godfather of Homoelectric which is captured by Lauren Jo Kelly. Sebastian Matthes’ photographs celebrate the people on the dancefloor at The Warehouse Project since its inception, while Al Baker explores youth counter-culture against the 1990s socio-political background, exploring themes of globalisation, urbanism and social activism. Dave Swindells’ photos of the unforgettable Spike Island and the 30,00 people in attendance have never been exhibited before – capturing a moment when Manchester and the north west felt like the centre of the universe.
The launch night coincided with Highsnobiety’s debut at Warehouse Project, with a major line-up of slowthai, Fredo and Mike Skinner, which was mental – not that we were expecting anything less.
Read i-D’s interview with Jon Shard here.
With love from We Are Indigo in 2020 x