Multi million pound nightlife festival launches in Milton Keynes next month - and it's free for all

The Tour de Moon is part of the government’s £120m Unboxed festival, which will take part in venues all over the UK this year.

It will make its debut in Bletchley on May 11, when attractions will include live music, DJ sets, floats and a large rotating moon.

Aimed at young adults and the “nightlife sector”, a centrepiece attraction will be a full size replica of nine metre-long Archie The Squid, who resides at The Natural History Museum,

Organisers describe the event as “truly a festival like no other”, bringing together talks, cinema, music and games all under one cosmic theme.

A spokesman said: “Tour de Moon celebrates the relationship between Earth and the Moon with a number of thought-provoking, exciting and original experiences with a special

focus on nightlife, creativity and culture.

"The festival will prompt visitors to ask, ‘Why can’t we imagine a new way of thinking?’ – highlighting the need for radical imagination in the current global climate as well as encouraging alternative futures.”

Tour de Moon is a public festival and tickets are free. They can be obtained here.

Other features will include a ‘Moon Convoy’ of floats, interactive and ultra-violet experiences, and an inflatable game designed with the help of scientists at NASA SSERVI and the SETI Institute,

There will even be a larger than life red phone through which visitors can “talk to the moon”, promise the organisers.

Tour de Moon’s creator is artist and filmmaker Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun, who is the founder of NASA’s International Space Orchestra and the tuition-free University of the Underground.

She said: “Our main objective for Tour de Moon is to prompt radical imagination, support pluralistic thinking so to offer alternative futures developed by and with youths. With this festival we decided to redistribute our funding and to use our platform to celebrate the nightlife sector and young adults – demographics which have been hit especially hard by the impacts of Covid and funding cuts over the last few years.

Tour de Moon is one of 10 major creative projects commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK.