A unique experience
On the 16th of December 2023, Sleep Token performed their then largest headlining show to date, at the OVO Wembley Arena. During the buildup to the performance, their fan base was unsure of the future of the band. Having taken the world by storm with their album Take Me Back To Eden, which concluded their album trilogy, it looked as though the anonymous group might just dissapear after one final show. Tickets sold out in under ten minutes, further cementing the importance of the event.
As a fan who had discovered the band earlier in the year, I was active in their online community, and while I noticed many were hoping that the band would produce their first ever live recording at Wembley, all signs pointed to them continuing their policy of not producing live recordings.
The idea
Having been unable to get tickets for the show, I was surprised to see a giveaway of a seated ticket on the main main Discord server for the fanbase, and decided to enter the giveaway without any expectations of winning. On the 12th of December, the giveaway ended, and to my shock, I had won the ticket. This sparked a flurry of messages, and meant that instead of ignoring the show to avoid disappointment, I was now interested in taking part in various fan organised projects.
With less than 48 hours before the doors were scheduled to open, I realised that instead of hoping the band would produce a film, we as a fanbase could record and produce our own, showcasing a different perspective from many concert films. I very quickly set up several Google Sheets with a probable setlist, and started to recruit fans who were willing to film sections of the performace and let us use their footage.
Making it work
What followed was 4 months of hard effort, and loads of amazing fan interactions, stories and experiences. On the night of the show, I positioned my phone on the stairs of the arena, and left it to record, while several other fans throughout the arena also recorded individual songs and sections of the show. Once the show was over, I started to try and find as many fans who had filmed parts of the show and were willing to take part in this project. For this purpose, I created an Instagram profile specifically for the project, as well as regularly posting on forums.
The result of this was over 100GB of raw footage from over 20 fans, including not only the entire show, but also fans talking about their experience with the band and their music. We also received an appearance from Lani Masks, the artist who designed the masks that the band premiered at Wembley, explaining the process of making the masks, as well as how the band had given him an amazing opportunity as a young artist.
While the process of appealing for footage started immediately, editing and audio mixing didn’t start until several days later, yet the first hour and 47 minute long draft was finished on Boxing Day, comprised of just the live performance. For the next 3 months, I worked on the project, accumulating more footage and producing not only a film, but some promotional content as well. I organised assistance from Xenryiem to produce the poster artwork, as well as some assistance from 001Herald to share the colour grading workload.
Release
On the 30th of March, after weeks of work to be able to produce an accurate HDR grade using SDR displays, the film was uploaded to YouTube, where it unfortunately was delayed by processing times, and released a day later than expected, early in the morning of the 1st of April.
Over 2 hours and 14 minutes long, the film reached 20 000 views within 10 days, and now sits at over 50 000 views on YouTube. The full project and all associated files occupies 1.7TB of space, and was recorded entirely using phones. I have recieved many messages from fans who have enjoyed the project, whether they were present at the show or not, as it has managed to not only bring the event to those unable to attend, but also bring the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of fans to all those who watch it.