An Explosion Of Fun!
The Edinburgh Science Festival invites you to explore every frontier…
PROMPTED by the moon landing’s 50th anniversary, the Edinburgh Science Festival has a packed programme of events on the theme of Frontiers. The 31st festival is a celebration of exploration, discovery and taking leaps into the unknown, explains Amanda Tyndall, the festival’s creative director.
“It’s celebrating the idea of science as a way of exploring the frontiers of our knowledge about ourselves, the world and our place in the universe, and of our urge to explore and explain the unknown,” she says.
“We’re interested in ideas on the cutting edge and in doing things differently, and in looking at what’s happening at the forefront of different areas of science.”
Venues include the National Museum of Scotland, Summerhall, the City Art Centre, the Botanic Gardens, Dynamic Earth and the Pleasance.
Amanda and her creative team have scheduled a wide-ranging programme of interactive events, theatre, talks, workshops and exhibitions for both adults and children, aiming to challenge some of the ideas around science as a subject and how people engage with it.
“Since the beginning of the festival, the team has tried really hard to challenge people’s perceptions of the science they had in school, which might have bored them, and tried to think of really engaging, interactive and immersive ways people could experience science.”
The festival has rebranded under the umbrella organisation Edinburgh Science, which also covers an extensive learning programme and international activities.
It’s a new name for an organisation that has grown hugely since the first festival 30 years ago.
Amanda puts its longevity and success down to a stable financial model, a strong in-house creative team and an increasing interest in and awareness of science among the general public.
“If you think about some of the big challenges we face as individuals, as a society and as a planet, science is at their heart, everything from healthcare, medicine and technology to the environment and climate. If you scratch the surface, all of these things are about science.”
Here are our picks of the must-see highlights from the most fabulous science festival imaginable!