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Social in the City

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Social in the City
StatusActive
GenreOnline Video
Venue
Location(s)
CountryUnited Kingdom
InauguratedAugust 28–30, 2009
Most recentAugust 9–11, 2019
Attendance2015: 10,000[1]
Websitesitc-event.co.uk

Social in the City (often styled as SitC), formerly Summer in the City, is an annual three-day multi-genre online video event held in London, dedicated to content creators and community from a range of social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram.[2][3][4]

The first Summer in the City in 2009 was a gathering of YouTubers in the parks of London. In 2016, SitC was acquired by MCM Expo Group as part of their "MCM Central" brand.[5] After SitC 2019 the event was rebranded as Social in the City, the first Winter Edition in December took place at the National Exhibition Centre.[6]

History

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2009–2011 (London Parks)

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The first Summer in the City was held in London, as a traditional YouTube gathering. It was organised by vlogger Tom Burns and YouTube musician Dave Bullas, with the support of Liam Dryden and Jazza John. The three-day event was held in the last weekend of August and took place across several of London's Royal Parks. The largest attendance at any point was reportedly 200 people, a mix of YouTube creators and viewers.[7]

In its first three years, the event followed the pattern of meeting in parks by day, and moving to a London venue such as The Luminaire for live music performances in the evening.[8]

2012 (The Brewery)

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Following the rapid growth of the event, the decision was made to hold the fourth Summer in the City at a dedicated venue for its duration; SitC 2012 took place at The Brewery in London from 17 to 19 August. This was the first year the event would introduce official programming, including workshops and Q&As from creators, as well as an official livestream on the event's YouTube channel.[9]

The number of prospective attendees at SitC 2012 exceeded the 1,000-person capacity of the venue, inspiring the need to move away from being a free event and introduce ticketing in following years.[10]

2013–2014 (Alexandra Palace)

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SitC's first official ticketed event and the fifth event overall was held in London's Alexandra Palace, with an increased capacity of 7,000 attendees. Backlash over the announcement that the event would now charge admission before confirming the venue, dates or line-up of featured creators resulted in the cut of early ticket prices to £10 plus VAT.[11]

Accompanying 2013's event was a spin-off tour called the Summer Warm-Up, which involved creators from the SitC 2013 line-up touring through some of the UK's major cities, to perform one-off gigs in the build-up to the main event in London.[12] The 2013 SitC was also the introduction of formal meet & greets, where fans would wait in line to meet popular YouTubers from the lineup. The high demand of creators along with the "first come, first served" model of the meet & greets resulted in the decision to add additional ticketing to the meet & greets in 2014.[13]

The sixth event SitC 2014 attracted over 8,000 attendees.[14] The event started with a Creator Day on Friday with panels targeted towards creators rather than fans.[15] Continuing issues with the demand for SitC's meet & greets in 2014 inspired the development of an online ballot system, that has since been implemented in following events.[16]

2015–2019 (ExCeL London)

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Summer in the City moved to ExCeL for its seventh year which increased its overall capacity to 10,000 attendees.[17] Upon the preliminary announcement of the venue and ticket sales in January 2015, nine influential creators from talent network Gleam including Zoella, Alfie Deyes and Joe Sugg simultaneously announced they would not be attending 2015's event, favouring plans for their own event titled Amity Fest.[18] SitC 2015 hosted the presentation of several YouTube Play Button awards to creators who had recently hit milestones of 100,000 or 1 million subscribers on their channels,[19] and NME stated that vlogging has become big business.[20]

In February 2016, SitC joined MCM Expo Group.[21] The first event hosted under the MCM ownership took place 12–14 August 2016.[5] Emma Blackery published three SitC 2017 videos in her vlog and won in the "Song of the Year" category.[22][23][24] Other winners included Hannah Witton, TomSka, Dodie Clark, and Rose and Rosie.[25]

SitC 2019 featured panelists Hannah Witton, Tom Scott and others.[26][27] After this event Tom Burns announced that Summer in the City would be rebranded as Social in the City.[28] The first Social in the City: Winter Edition took place at the National Exhibition Centre in December.[6]

Summer in the City Awards

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SitC 2016 was the debut of the Summer in the City Awards, an event dedicated to presenting community-nominated awards such as "Best Vlogger" and "YouTuber Book Of The Year" to winning creators on the mainstage.[29]

2016

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Niki and Sammy Albon were the first hosts of the Summer in the City Awards.[30]

Breakthrough Award Vlogger of the Year
  • Adrian Bliss
    • Daniel J. Layton
    • Jake Mitchell
    • Jana Dam
    • Mark Ferris
    • Connie Glynn (Noodlerella)
YouTuber Series of the Year YouTuber Book of the Year
Short film of the Year Community Spirit Award
  • Bertie Gilbert – Let it Be
YouTuber Song of the Year

2017

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Tom Burns hosted in 2017.[31]

Creator Book of the Year Creator Series of the Year
Film of the Year Artisan Award
  • Bertie Gilbert – My Sister
    • Sam Saffold-Geri – Comfort Food
    • Hazel Hayes – Hot Mess
    • Mikey Murphy – Perception
    • Sammy Paul – Playground
Fashion & Beauty Award Community Spirit Award
  • Saffron Barker
    • Floral Princess
    • Jasmine Clough
    • Leyla Rose
    • Lewys Ball
  • Em Ford
Breakthrough Award Vlogger of the Year
Song of the Year

2018

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The 2018 ceremony was again hosted by Tom Burns.[32]

Streamer of the Year Gamer of the Year
  • Callum Knight
    • Scott Major
    • LDShadowLady
    • Clare Siobhán
    • Simi (tamago2474)
Community Spirit Award Vlogger of the Year
Breakthrough Award Creator Series of the Year
  • Family Fizz
Creator Video of the Year Fashion & Beauty Award
  • Elle Mills – COMING OUT (ELLE MILLS STYLE)
    • Family Fizz – EMOTiONAL HOME BiRTH WiTH OUR KiDS!! **life changing**
    • Jack and Dean – The Goblin
    • Hannah Witton – Learning to Love My New Body | Mini Doc
    • PJ Liguori – OCEAN KID
  • Anastasia Kingsnorth
    • Lana Summer
    • Lewys Ball
    • Saffron Barker
    • Sophie (sophdoesnails)
    • Syd and Ell
Book of the Year Song of the Year

References

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  1. ^ Cook, James (18 August 2015). "Inside the YouTube convention where thousands of teenage girls queue to meet social media stars". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 21 August 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  2. ^ Fred McConnell; Irene Baqué; Adam Sich (18 August 2014). "Summer in the City: the UK's biggest YouTube gathering". The Guardian.
  3. ^ "When YouTube Stars Go Offline and Meet Fans in Person". CTV. 15 February 2015.
  4. ^ "When YouTube stars go offline and meet up live". The Daily Star. 15 February 2015.
  5. ^ a b Dave Golder (24 February 2016). "MCM Is New Owner Of YouTube Festival Summer In The City". MCMBuzz.com. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  6. ^ a b Poppy Dillon (6 December 2019). "Our 12 Favourite Moments From Social in the City: Winter Edition 2019". TenEightyMagazine.com. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  7. ^ "The "official" Summer In The City 2010 video!". summerinthecitygathering. 1 June 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  8. ^ "About SitC". summerinthecitygathering. 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  9. ^ SitC (18 August 2012). Summer in the City 2012 LIVE on YouTube.
  10. ^ "From all of us - Thank You. - Summer in the City". summerinthecitygathering. 21 August 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  11. ^ "Explaining the Ticketing System - SitC 2013". summerinthecitygathering. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  12. ^ "Summer Warm Up - Lineup Announcement". summerinthecitygathering. 10 May 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  13. ^ "Saturday Wrap-Up!". summerinthecitygathering. 17 August 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  14. ^ Natalie Mortimer (4 August 2014). "Rightster Agrees Live Streaming Deal Summer in The City". TheDrum.com. SitC, now in its sixth year, attracts over 8,000 attendees from across the world in a celebration of 'all things YouTube'.
  15. ^ "More on the SitC Creator Day!". summerinthecitygathering. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  16. ^ "Re: Meet & Greets". summerinthecitygathering. 10 August 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  17. ^ Stephen Doble (9 January 2015). "UK's Biggest YouTube Convention Expands, Moves To ExCeL London". Videoter.com. Archived from the original on 20 April 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  18. ^ Rachel Pilcher (14 January 2015). "YouTubers including Zoella, Tanya Burr and Alfie Deyes reveal they won't be attending Summer in the City". SugarScape.com. Archived from the original on 24 October 2016.
  19. ^ Amelia Butterly (16 August 2015). "Summer in the City is a hit with fans, even without Zoella". Newsbeat. BBC Online. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  20. ^ Bassett, Jordan (13 August 2015). "NME Investigation: Are YouTubers The New Pop Stars?". NME. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  21. ^ Liam Dryden (6 November 2017). "Summer In The City Has Just Been Acquired By MCM Expo". WeTheUnicorns.com. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  22. ^ Emma Blackery (9 August 2017). Emo Starlord and the Blue Waffle on YouTube.
  23. ^ Emma Blackery (10 August 2017). Emo Starlord and the Headline Show on YouTube.
  24. ^ Emma Blackery (11 August 2017). Emo Starlord and the Song of the Year on YouTube.
  25. ^ "Congratulations to SitC 2017 Award winners!". SitC 2017. 15 August 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  26. ^ Louise Griffin (3 August 2019). "Everything you need to know about Summer in the City 2019 from featured creators to pro tips". Metro. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  27. ^ SitC (9 October 2019). Summer in the City 2019 Official Video on YouTube.
  28. ^ Jasmine Greene (30 August 2019). "Summer in the City Rebrands As Social in the City". TenEightyMagazine.com. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  29. ^ "A Big Thank You From Summer in the City 2016!". summerinthecitygathering. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  30. ^ Sutton, Erin (14 August 2016). "Summer in the City Awards 2016 Round-Up". TenEightyMagazine.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  31. ^ Griffin, Louise (7 August 2017). "Summer in the City Awards 2017 Round-Up". TenEightyMagazine.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  32. ^ Beveridge, Marta (12 August 2018). "Summer in the City Awards 2018 Round-Up". TenEightyMagazine.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
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