Sunderland Echo reporter Chris Cordner finds out about the You Are Here silent disco-style audio trail now available in Sunderland. It'ss an innovative audio trail inviting residents and visitors to experience the city's stories through an immersive soundscape of local people's voices.
00:00Here we are, Sunderland City Centre, and I'm about to go on a silent disco.
00:05How good is that?
00:06But this is a disco with a difference because it's all about Sunderland and its history.
00:11We are launching a brand new history trail today called You Are Here, Sunderland,
00:16and it's a brand new audio history trail that we've been developing
00:20alongside some lovely young people from the city.
00:23It's all about Sunderland, your favourite memories of Sunderland, Sunderland stories.
00:28Essentially, it's a way of bringing history alive.
00:31I really like the statue that's in Keele Square of the Vaux, Horse and Carriage.
00:37It links to the history of Sunderland and the brewery that used to be around here,
00:41where City Hall is actually.
00:43I remember hearing from older generations that apparently the city centre used to just
00:48smell like beer hops. It's filled with history.
00:51There was a couple of pubs obviously on the end, which everybody used to go to,
00:54and then obviously the brewery across the road, which had its own public house,
00:58there was a very loud sort of industrial sort of hustle and bustle.
01:02Obviously, he had all the trucks going into Foxes all the time, do you know what I mean,
01:05all the deliveries and things like that, all the cars with the people and the workers.
01:09We've been working with Sunderland Youth Council and Together for Children,
01:12and they have come up with basically everything.
01:14So we've been there to kind of help shape it, so the 620, which is our theatre company,
01:18but they have completely, from everything of where it would be in the city centre was really important.
01:24So they've completely shaped the entire trail.
01:26All you need is your phone and an app, and you scan it, and then it will come alive.
01:33You press play on it, and it will come alive in the area that you're walking into it.
01:36The one that you're testing with us today is the silent disco version.
01:40If you don't want to do the app version, essentially, we take you around.
01:43I'm quite surprised that the youth of today thinks Sunderland history is cool.
01:49Yes, I know, right?
01:50So I think we've kind of gone on a journey, so we've been working with them for quite a while,
01:53and that's kind of the premise of the entire thing.
01:56It's kind of going, what are the stories that we want to hear?
01:59So it's really important.
02:00It was local voices talking about, I suppose, some of the stories you might not hear so much as well.
02:04So that was really important.
02:06It wasn't all the things that maybe you'd think you would hear.
02:08So over time, they've kind of gone, oh, there's so much stuff here.
02:11There's so much, so we've kind of very much gone on a journey from it, like, oh, there's nothing here to, oh, there's loads.
02:17It's a bit of a mix, really.
02:19You can kind of get stuck in whatever way you want.
02:21So we've got stories of Sunderland's music heritage and favourite moments there.
02:28We've got some very, very passionate chats about favourite food of Sunderland.
02:33It's an ongoing project, isn't it, you're going to add to us?
02:36Yeah, fingers crossed.
02:37So we've done, it's kind of at the moment, we've got, like, this little bit in the city centre where there's so many stories to grow out.
02:43And we were talking about, we haven't got that many football stories yet, which is a real surprise.
02:46We need some football stories.
02:49Football.
02:50Exactly.
02:51And we've got some stories around music, which is going to be added.
02:54So if you come down this week, there'll be, we want to add some more stories to the trail around music, but all sorts of other memories that people might have around this area, but also we're going to spread beyond hoping.
03:04Right.
03:05Well, who knew?
03:06Sunderland's got a fascinating past.
03:08Well, actually, I did know, but now I know even more.
03:11And all that's thanks to this fantastic new silent disco tour that anybody can go on.
03:17So why not get yourself down here?
03:19Try it out for yourself.
03:20And you can find out all about Sunderland and its great past.
