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Walk The Plank

Walk the Plank’s team of outdoor art experts work together to dream up, create and produce outstanding moments of outdoor theatre and participation. We have a long track record of making large-scale events and festivals that bring people together in public celebration. This is based on our ability to come up with big ideas that connect with people from all paths in life.

Storytelling is at the heart of nearly everything we do, and the arena for our work is the great outdoors. Our mission is to enrich lives through shared creative experiences. For Green Space Dark Skies, we will create an unforgettable series of events by inviting everyone, across the UK’s four nations, to celebrate, experience and protect the landscape, which belongs to all of us.

Event participants dancing while bubbles float around them
Event spectators smiling as paper confetti falls around them

As the creative driving force behind Green Space Dark Skies, Walk the Plank will engage thousands of participants from diverse communities across the UK to take part in this mass participation project. Walk the Plank are committed to removing barriers in order to put inclusivity, sustainability, learning and creativity at the heart of Green Space Dark Skies.

Walk the Plank – making incredible spectacle happen

Walk the Plank is one of the UK’s leading outdoor arts organisations with an award-winning body of work that spans 30 years. With a headquarters in Salford, North West England, and offices in North Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the company works internationally, and locally.

Recent projects include:

  • BODY, an immersive outdoor installation that premiered at the British Science Festival 2021, touring in 2022/2023
  • A collaboration with Mind the Gap for Zara: the world’s first large-scale outdoor performance with a learning disabled cast (Halifax, London 2019)
  • Creative Europe training projects, to build the capacity of creative practitioners in 11 European Capital of Culture cities
  • Work with Greater Manchester’s Diwali Melas, Bluedot and Lost Village festivals
  • The tenth anniversary of the Wales Millennium Centre
  • The opening of three European Capitals of Culture: Liverpool 2008, Turku 2011 (Finland) and Paphos 2017 (Cyprus)
  • Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002 closing ceremony
  • Ten years as producers of Manchester Day, the city’s annual parade, working with Manchester City Council and diverse community groups across the city region

Our national and international work sits alongside ongoing projects in Salford: working with schools, colleges and animating the city’s parks, waterways, and green spaces.

A not-for-profit organisation (Charity no. 1066077), Walk the Plank’s environmental sustainability achievements have been recognised through a Creative Green Award (Julie’s Bicycle). The company is a member of LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International),  Manchester Arts Sustainability Team (MAST) and IETM – the contemporary European performing arts network.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Walk the Plank and our partners to create something amazing. Our project will engage people of all ages and cultures to celebrate our landscapes and the lives within them. It considers them as places worth enjoying and protecting, for everyone, forever.

John Wassell
Creative Producer, Walk the Plank

The Green Space Dark Skies Team

Meet the people bringing Green Space Dark Skies to life. They are known around the world, and have been making work in outdoor spaces for 30 years.