A science festival is a

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

that showcases

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

with the same freshness and flair that would be expected from an

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

or music festival and primarily targets the general public. These public engagement events can be varied, including

lectures A lecture (from Latin ''lēctūra'' “reading” ) is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical inform ...

, exhibitions,

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the on ...

s, live demonstrations of

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...

s, guided tours, and

panel discussion A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience, typically at scientific, business, or academic conferences, fan conventions, and on television shows. Panels usually include a ...

s. There may also be events linking science to the arts or history, such as plays, dramatised readings, and musical productions. The core content is that of science and technology, but the style comes from the world of the arts.

History

The modern concept of a science festival comes from the city of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

in 1989. The choice of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

as European Capital of Culture for 1990 took Edinburgh by surprise and stimulated it to rebrand itself as a city of science, building on the success of a series of big urban developments led by its Economic Development Department. A senior member of the development team, Ian Wall, proposed that Edinburgh should highlight its new image by complementing its world-famous autumn arts festival with a new type of spring event for which he coined the phrase 'science festival'. Reaction was mixed, with some organisations doubting whether science could be packaged in an arts format. Even so, the city put resources behind the idea, appointing a director and project team, and in April 1989 the first

Edinburgh International Science Festival Edinburgh Science, founded in 1989, is an educational charity that aims to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds to discover the world around them. Edinburgh Science is best known for organising Edinburgh's annual Science Festival the w ...

took place. Edinburgh's success led to the development of science festivals in many other parts of the world. The

British Science Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

restructured its annual meeting, originally established in 1831 as a discussion forum for scientists, to turn it into the British Science Festival of today. The town of Cheltenham—famous for its jazz, music, and literature festivals— added science to its portfolio with the creation of the

Cheltenham Science Festival Cheltenham Science Festival is one of the UK's leading science festivals, and is part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for the Jazz, Music and Literature Festivals that run every year. The 2018 Cheltenham Science Festival (6–11 June) ...

in 2002. Realizing the key importance of science festivals science organizations and funding bodies put ever more emphasis on

outreach Outreach is the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. A key component of outreach is that the group providing it is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, it involves meetin ...

to foster public understanding both of the results and the wider relevance of science. Recent years have seen the creation of a number of new science festivals as forms of public engagement. An umbrella organization for European science festivals and other science communication events, the European Science Events Association (EUSEA), was formed in 2001 and now has approximately 100 member organizations from 36 different countries. The concept spread to Sweden in 1997 with The International Science Festival in Gothenburg which is an annual

in central Gothenburg, Sweden with thought provoking science activities for the public. The festival is visited by about each year.vartgoteborg.se - Världsrekordförsök inleder Göteborgs tolfte vetenskapsfestival
Vårt Göteborg, 11 april 2008 This makes it the largest popular science event in Swedengoteborg.com - Festivalens hemsida
(archivelink 2006-11-01) and one of the largest popular science events in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

.Forskning och framsteg, 3/08 sid 64
(dead link 2012-04-24) The spread of science festivals within the United States is relatively recent. One of the earliest examples is Wonderfest, an annual Bay Area science festival that began in 1998. Additionally, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science includes a number of public events. Focusing on one particular science, the physics festival "Mastering the Mysteries of the Universe", was held in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, in 1999 in association with the centennial of the American Physical Society. Since 2004, there has been a science festival in Pittsburgh (the SciTech festival; from 2005 on known as the SciTech Spectacular), and new science festivals have been held in Cambridge, Massachusetts (the

Cambridge Science Festival The Cambridge Science Festival was a series of events typically held annually in March in Cambridge, England and was the United Kingdom's largest free science festival. In 2019 it was announced that the Cambridge Science Festival and the Cambr ...

, first held in April 2007); and in New York City (the

World Science Festival The World Science Festival is an annual science festival produced by the World Science Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in New York City. There is also an Asia-Pacific event held in Brisbane, Australia. The foun ...

held at the end of May 2008); and in March 2009, San Diego hosted the first west coast science festival, the San Diego Science Festival founded by Larry Bock. the Science Festival Alliance, a consortium of major festivals formed with a 3-year NSF grant, has supported the growth of independent regional science festivals, with an initial emphasis on celebration in communities throughout the US. In September 2010, the

North Carolina Science Festival The North Carolina Science Festival (NCSF) is a month-long, yearly celebration encompassing hundreds of events throughout the state of North Carolina. The festival is organized by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center on the University of North ...

became the first statewide science festival in the United States, presenting more than 400 events across the state over a two-week span. The second NC Science Festival was held April 13–29, 2012, and the festival is now an annual event. Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill founded the North Carolina Science Festival and continues to administer it. In late October 2010, the

USA Science and Engineering Festival The USA Science & Engineering Festival is a bi-annual science festival held in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2010 by Larry Bock, the festival is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines in the ...

was the "country’s first national science festival". This national emphasis was based partly on encouraging local events to coincide with the major event in Washington DC. Festivals can vary greatly in size, scope, and their overall purpose. Involved partners may have different aims, methods, and motivations to participate and deliver such festivals. A university might stage a small festival in its hometown. On the other end of the scale, the 2006

British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

Festival of Science held on September 2–9 in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, England, was attended by more than 174,000 visitors.

Typical festival events

Science festivals feature a wide variety of events. As they offer an enjoyable setting with social interaction, visitors tend to develop increased interest in curiosity about science, and also value the opportunity to interact with scientific research through different forms of public engagement. Those can include conventional methods of science communication found in science museums and centres. Differing from them in their focus on current scientific research and their temporary nature. Because of this, science festivals have high amounts of volunteering scientists, university students, technologists and engineers. Science festivals are also aimed at playing an important, if informal part in secondary

science education Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), som ...

. Many have events specifically aimed at students and/or teachers, such as workshops or offering curriculum-linked workshops, and science shows to regional schools throughout the year. A typical format for a science festival is to have a series of lectures, with topics ranging from cutting-edge research to unusual perspectives on science. For instance, the 2007 Edinburgh festival "Big Ideas" series included talks on what makes racing cars fast, the molecular basis of food preparation, the

neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

and

beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

, and the properties of quarks. Most science festivals include hands-on activities similar to those found in science centers. Another popular theme is the interaction of science and culture, including the arts. Generally speaking, science engagement can be separated into three orders of engagement. Irwin's conceptional 'third-order thinking' model defines 'first order' engagement to merely promote science learning, and the overall awareness and interest of science. The 'second order' of public engagement describes two-way 'dialogue', where both experts and laypeople can learn from each other by exchanging knowledge and valuable information. Connecting the wider social context of techno-scientific advancements to social needs in defining a 'third order' of engagement, involving pluralistic debates and discussions on how science can best serve societal needs. Science festivals are quite unique for the opportunity to combine diverse engagement formats, covering all of the previously mentioned orders of engagement in an informal setting.

Strengths & Challenges

Strengths

The strengths of science festivals lie in their unique role of creating strong and memorable impressions due to their time-limited nature and the variety of different engagement forms. Compared to science broadcasting, festivals allow visitors to engage in discussions with experts about more complex topics. This enables visitors to dive deeper into science, benefitting from their immediacy and interactivity, while scientists get the chance to enthuse them about their work and connect to a non-expert audience. Far beyond just conveying information, science festivals provide visitors with the conceptional tools to understand scientific development in different areas of science. In addition, festivals are often perceived to be more open and honest about uncertainties in the nature of scientific processes compared to the 'ready made' contents from some public relations end of science engagement.

Challenges

Existing research does not always focus enough on the need to complement impact evaluation research on the effectiveness of science festivals with insights about visitor perspectives. Most attendees already share a significant interest in science or self-report that they are culturally active in general. Jensen and Kennedy suggest that science festivals face challenges in terms of reaching out to as wide a public as possible, being much more inclusive to the actual population. To foster socio-economic inclusivity, science festivals should be brought to the public through new creative ways, such as school visits - reaching diverse audiences with increasingly diverse backgrounds and previous interest in science.

List of science festivals

United Kingdom

British Science Festival, England * British Science Festival, Newcastle, England * Caithness International Science Festival, Wick, Scotland *

, Cambridge, England *

, Cheltenham, England *

, Edinburgh, Scotland * Glasgow Science Festival, Glasgow, Scotland * Manchester Science Festival, Greater Manchester, England * Nottingham Festival of Science and Curiosity, Nottingham, England * Pint of Science, Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Guildford, Hull, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Southampton, Teesside, York

Continental Europe

* BergamoScienza, Bergamo, Italy * Copernicus Festival, Kraków, Poland *

Festival della Scienza The Festival della Scienza is an annual science festival held in Genoa, Italy. It was launched in 2003 combining hundreds of different initiatives and events, designed to fulfill and stimulate the interest of visitors of all ages and all levels o ...

, Genoa, Italy *

Highlights der Physik Highlight or Highlights may refer to: In arts and entertainment * Highlight (band), a South Korean boy group ** Highlight (album), ''Highlight'' (album), the third album by the group, or its title track"Highlight", *Highlight, a song by South Kor ...

, various cities, Germany * The International Science Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden * Uchenye protiv mifov, Moscow & St Peterburg, Russia

United States

* Bay Area Science Festival, San Francisco, California * Los Alamos ScienceFest, Los Alamos, New Mexico *

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, Washington DC *

, New York City * Michigan State University (MSU) Science Festival, East Lansing, MI

Canada

* Science Rendezvous, Toronto, Ontario * Festival Eurêka!, Montréal, Québec

Australasia

* New Zealand International Science Festival, Dunedin, New Zealand * World Science Festival Brisbane, Brisbane, AustraliaWorld Science Festival Brisbane
/ref> * Sydney Science Festival, Sydney, Australia

References

External links

European Science Events AssociationMapping the World's Science Festivals
- Nature Publishing Group's Team Blog
Science Festivals Linkedin GroupScience Festival Alliance
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