BOOKING NOW: MUST SEE EVENT

Bradford Science Festival

National Science and Media Museum, Bradford. To book free tickets scienceandmediamuseum. org.uk/whats-on/bradford-science-festival

Bradford Science Festival, produced by the National Science and Media Museum, will be returning this May half term (May 23-June 4), ahead of the museum temporarily closing for a year-long transformation. Free tickets for the festival are now available to book online.

This year’s festival theme is Vision: Seeing the Hidden World to explore how we use science and technology to see things we can’t see with the naked eye. Headlining the festival this year is Giant Leaps, while BradLab and STEM City return to explore the science happening locally and the exciting careers available in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Choreographer Corey Baker has been commissioned to create the first dance in space, through an out-of-this-world immersive experience, Giant Leaps. Visitors can throw shapes as avatar dancers to see how they move under different gravity conditions, influencing the movements of stars, space dust and dark matter as they journey through the galaxies.

Visitors will also be able to make their own chromotrope or see things up close in a microscope along with special performances and dance workshops led by Corey Baker Dance and interactive science shows to explore the illuminating world of light.

Wrapping up the festival at the museum will be a big family weekend on June 3 and 4. Festival goers will be able to take part in activities and interactive workshops led by community partners. Hosted by Future Transformations, in To the Moon and Back visitors can learn the secrets of space travel while building their own Orion spacecraft. In Future of Money, the Bank of England dives into the value of money and how the way we pay things has changed over time. Led by Liberty Arts, Curiosity, the Laser and Me explores the pioneering life of African American ophthalmologist Patricia Bath and her contributions to the field of medicine. Join researchers from the University of Bradford to learn about microscopic, intergalactic and archaeological hidden worlds. Visitors will also be able to groove along with giant puppets and live drumming by Global Grooves.

The festival will mark the culmination of the museum’s successful public programme as it enters a temporary closure period to undergo a £6m refurbishment.