First announced in 2018, the event has been operating under the working title Festival UK 2022. Green has explained that the festival is supposed to be a “celebration of creativity happening across the UK bringing together our best creative minds from science, technology, engineering, arts and maths to do large scale creative public engagement projects that are both live online and through traditional broadcast, so you can experience them from wherever you are in the world”.
There are 10 projects that make up the programme: About Us is a combination of live shows and multimedia installations, Dandelion is described as a “reimagination of the harvest festival for the 21st Century” and Dreamachine is said to provide a marginal insight into the extraordinary potential of our own minds. Galwad: a story from our future imagines the Wales of the future through a mix of live performance and a TV drama, Green Space Dark Skies will highlight national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty whilst Our Place in Space has sculptures representing the solar systems in Ireland. PoliNations goes for a green theme with a pop-up forest garden and See Monster is taking place in a decommissioned North Sea offshore platform. Lastly, StoryTrails wants to draw surprising and intriguing stories from local history and the Tour de Moon is a series of festivals, satellite events and nightlife experiences inspired by the moon.
The 10 projects were selected from ideas generated by 30 creative teams, with research and development funding given to them last year to develop their pitches, in an attempt to “support economic recovery in the UK by reanimating towns and cities”. Unboxed is funded by four governments of the UK and will be delivered in partnership with Belfast City Council, Creative Wales and EventScotland. TV historian David Olusoga and composer Nitin Sawhney are said to be involved to help create “once in a lifetime events and online experiences for millions.”