The free Hull open-air event About Us will host a variety of live performances, productions and multimedia installations

The event is part of a five-stop tour which will end in Hull, where the week-long event takes place from Saturday, April 30, to Friday, May 6.

About Us will feature poems and Scratch animations from young people from schools across Yorkshire, wider England and the rest of the UK. The 25-minute presentation will immerse the audience in an exciting journey through 13.8 billion years of history since the dawn of the universe in a celebration of the infinite ways in which we connect to the cosmos, natural world, and one another.

About Us is the opening event for UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, a unique celebration of creativity taking place across the UK this year; an unprecedented opportunity for people to come together and take part in a series of awe-inspiring major events and creative projects for free.

In the evening, About Us will transform the Hull landmark Queen Victoria Square into a large canvas combining awe-inspiring live projection-mapped animation and poetry, music, and live choral singing to create a unique atmosphere.

The event will take place across the Square, a raft of freestanding plinths containing dynamic theatrical lighting and LED screens will offer the counterpoint of the human-scale narrative against the vast scale imagery of the video projection.

The evening shows will feature winning entries of the About Us nationwide poetry and Scratch animation competition, on the theme of ‘connectivity and the universe’, selected by a host of distinguished judges including Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, mathematician, author and broadcaster, Rachel Riley and co-founder and CEO of Stemettes, Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE.

Acclaimed composer and musician Nitin Sawhney CBE has composed the original score which will be performed as part of the live shows by Hull Freedom Chorus. The choir performances of About Us are musically directed by composer, Osnat Schmool, who will conduct alongside local choir leaders.

With more than 60 credentials, Mr Sawhney has collaborated with the likes of Paul McCartney and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Director of 59 Productions and project director for About Us, Lysander Ashton, said: “About Us has been a unique collaborative process bringing together poets, scientists, musicians, visual artists and school children from across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

“All these unique voices have contributed to create a dazzlingly rich composite view of the extraordinary universe we all share. About Us is an invitation to experience a world where you are made of stars, you’re built from a trillion intricate cells working in harmony, you are related to dinosaurs and you can make a connection to a billion people with the press of a button; it’s a celebration of some of the incredible things that make us, us, and I can’t wait for audiences to come and see it.”

Chief creative officer of UNBOXED, Martin Green CBE, said: “UNBOXED is the UK’s most ambitious celebration of creativity to date and this free spectacular performance will show us what can be achieved when we harness the creative power of scientists, technicians, producers, musicians, poets and mathematicians to produce and present a truly extraordinary and inspirational experience, the audience, and the choirs and young people who have contributed, will never forget.”