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Vision and Values

Green Spaces Dark Skies is intrinsically rooted in nature, celebrating our landscapes and the life within them

Green Space Dark Skies invites thousands of people, from all paths in life, to make a journey into the landscape together. There, they are experiencing wild and beautiful places across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as dusk falls. Open to all, each mass gathering celebrates nature, our responsibility to protect it and everyone’s right to explore the countryside. Led by outdoor arts pioneers Walk the Plank, Green Space Dark Skies takes place from April to September 2022.

Walk the Plank and the project team are led by these beliefs:

Reconnect with nature

Please note this event has now finished.

Green Space Dark Skies wanted to hear your stories about the countryside. You might love it, or feel you are not welcome there. You might not be able to access green spaces at all. Either way, your stories matter – and we wanted you to tell us what you needed in order to take part in this special project. In the face of the climate emergency, and at a time when the need to reconnect with nature is more urgent than ever. This was a chance to have an adventure – meet new people, travel with us to new places and come together to experience some of the UK’s beautiful green spaces at dusk.

Share your story here.

Everyone is welcome

Green Space Dark Skies was open to everyone, and anyone could sign up to be involved. It was free to take part, and you could join alone, with family and friends, or with an organisation. We travelled to some of the UK’s most beautiful and wild landscapes.

These are places that anyone can visit, any time, for free. But we know that not everybody feels able to make use of these spaces. We believe we should all feel equally welcome to explore our green spaces. Walk the Plank aimed to make it possible for anyone to take part, but only those who signed up to be involved were there in person at each event. Together, we showed that the countryside is for all of us.

GET INVOLVED

We asked people to carry a light and help us create magical, memorable moments outdoors. There were 20 different secret locations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was free to take part and everyone was welcome to sign up.

Together, we celebrated nature, showed that the countryside belongs to all of us, and that it is our job to protect it.

These are places worth protecting, for everyone, forever

Green Space Dark Skies took place in wild and beautiful landscapes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was our job to protect these places – Green Space Dark Skies will be carbon positive, ultimately removing more carbon from the atmosphere than it produces. The aim was to empower everyone involved to make a difference locally too. We hoped that everyone who took part will become caretakers of nature for the future.

If you don’t have an emotional engagement with the real outdoors, the wild outdoors, how can you be expected to give a damn about the environment?

Phil Young, Co-founder
Black Trail Runners