What's on
Meet climate scientists and artists, and create designs for murals drawing attention to climate change as part of this year's Grantham Climate Art Prize for 11 to 25-year-olds.
Come and play with quantum light with expert physicists! Together, we’ll wonder at the nature of information in the quantum world and discover how this translates into cutting edge technologies.
How do bacteria build resistance against antibiotics? Experience an interactive installation that explores the dangers of antimicrobial resistance.
Try out our inflatable bungee run and explore how the length of your gut changes throughout your life and how this affects what you eat!
Enjoy sustainable food samples, recipe cards and an interactive quiz on climate-friendly grocery shopping - with prizes!
Through a photographic exhibition, explore the emotions that the climate and ecological crises evoke, and the emotional connections that science researchers and communicators have with the state of the planet.
We are waist-deep in pizza! Come help us get rid of it, and learn what this has to do with discovering new drugs for mental health problems.
Learn about false and misleading information online, what the risks are, what it can look like, how it spreads, and what you can do to tackle it.
Recharge at the Chill Out area in the NextGen Zone, with comfortable seating, DJ tunes and a chilled-out vibe. Escape the crowds and unwind in our exclusive oasis for 13 to 24 year-olds!
Step into our Maths-themed bar for a thirst quenching πnt (or 'pint' as they are normally called), and tackle a puzzle or two while you're there!
Visit the Royal Geographical Society this summer to see a stunning selection of shortlisted still and moving images across all genres
Looking for your own place at the Festival? If you're between 13 and 24, come and experience the NextGen Zone - a space that's designed exclusively for you.
Get hands-on with awesome materials. See a butterfly's wing under the microscope, and find out how scientists and engineers have been inspired by nature.
Join us throughout the day with performances from Royal College of Music, Imperial College, and London-based performers.
Dive into our age 18+ festival zone for some serious fun! From the art of corrosion to climate change and mental health, discover the blurred lines between art and science and enjoy hangover-free cocktails.
Work alongside MRC London Insitute of Medical Sciences and Imperial College London researchers to extract a strawberry's DNA, and take it home as a souvenir.
Through live demos and artistic depictions of future medicines, find out how mathematical models, new tech and public involvement in science is helping fight illness and disease
From robotic friends and revolutionary tech to green transport and smarter AI, explore how humans and machines will interface, interact and influence the future.
Meet scientists, engineers, artists and inventors and try out awesome activities, games, makes and experiments especially created for families with children under 12 in the Family Fun zone.
Come along to this relaxed space to drop in and enjoy a show. The programme is packed with interactive storytelling sessions, shows, and demonstrations especially for families.
Get into the festival spirit and dress to impress with a science-inspired crown making workshop
Design and build your own model mechanoid, recycled robot or cardboard drone that could make the world a better place.
Make paper brain hats to celebrate the wonderous grey matter between our ears with brain scientists and art educator Bethan Durie.
From our powerful brains to the story told by our DNA, take a tour of the wonders inside us all
From green concrete to permeable pavements that soak up excess rain water, make sure to visit our Building the Future zone to learn about new materials and technologies that will build and power our future cities.
The Dyson School of Design Engineering opens its doors to showcase interactive activities and innovations which address the challenges faced by our planet.
Discover what a Tiger Toilet is, and the role of its wriggling worm inhabitants – pick and race your own worm champion!
Create your own mini earthquake, build your own earthquake-resistant structure, and take part in the earthquake shaking challenge!
Celebrate the wonder of soil by making your own miniature paper box garden with artist and plant explorer Jacques Nimki, and Workshops For The Imagination.
Get creative by making your very own Wundertüte - a traditional German ´bag of wonderful surprises’!
Explore a model of the water cycle to discover how water gets from the clouds in the sky to the tap in your home.
Come play and learn how to build flexible structures with Wiggel!
Celebrate the wildlife all around us in the city with Imperial scientists, and make a beautiful leaf rubbing to take home.
Worms are secret superheroes! Join in our games, stories and demonstrations to find out how to keep their powers strong.
Discover the future of food, what it means to us and how what we eat may change.
From formal uchikake to casual yukata, come and find out about Japanese kimonos. Design your own kimono inspired by nature and try on a summer yukata.
Hear an eclectic range of performances from the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music and many more!
From quantum teleportation to the most recent developments in quantum computing and quantum non-locality, you’ll be surprised how much spiders can teach you.
Step inside a local school showcase of inventions from the next generation of budding engineers. Get inspired and vote for your favourite!
A curated group of artists create live artworks inspired by different areas of wondrous science. Watch their large-scale creations come to life in real time.
Find out more about parasites and the impact they can have on human health around the world.
Meet scientists attempting to sequence the DNA from every species of plant, animal, fungi and protist in Britain and Ireland.
Design your own healthy habit superhero to add to our festival collage.
Find out about the amazing structures inside our bodies that help us stay healthy, and use them as inspiration for your artwork.
Art installation: socially engaged artist Norma D Hunter challenges the status quo for women's basic rights.
Enjoy mood-enhancing cocktails without alcohol from SENTIA Spirits.
Draw, paint and collage the leaves you love through this summer garland activity, using eco-friendly materials and ancient Roman hedgerow structures for inspiration.
Roll up, roll up to the Nuclear Energy Future Fair! Discover the power of the future.
Visit the 1851-der tent and discover the legacy of innovation from the original Great Exhibition, from 1851 to today. Meet experts and experience the world of WONDER for yourself.
Explore the wonderous four letter language of our DNA, and contribute to a hand-art mural celebrating its story of individuality and shared history.
Design sugar molecules that can deliver drugs round the body.
Enter the factory to discover how Imperial scientists build tiny artificial cells, and make your own giant artificial cell to take home.
Discover the incredible nature and heritage of the Royal Parks, from their smallest invertebrate to their grandest historic landscapes
See clouds in a new way with atmospheric scientists measuring their height, shape and impact on the climate
Let your imagination run wild as you create a whole new planet. You’ll meet experts, dream up science fiction stories and craft your very own world.
Learn how we digitise museum specimens and how they can be used by scientists all over the world.
Explore new flavours and ingredients, as chefs and scientists whip up dishes that you can sample right there and then!
Take a guided tour of the Natural History Museum and discover the fascinating work of women scientists past and present.
Create your own space poem with award-winning poets and scientists who explore the universe and worlds beyond our own.
All children love to ask "why?" That makes them all philosophers. Judith Millecker, author of The PhilosoCats, runs workshops with children (and parents) to show how easy philosophy is.
Capture unobservable sounds using photography and uncover the physical principles enabling us to develop the future of brain imaging.
Join us for a short tour and discover the awe and wonder behind the brilliant facades of Exhibition Road!
Find your personal environmental cause with an interactive climate action simulator and create placards and banners to take out amongst the Festival crowds.
Discover an ancient lace craft tradition and make your own needlework memento with a designer repopularising historic artforms through digital technologies.
Unleash your artistic skills to create your own colourful metal keychain in this workshop exploring corrosion.
Solve puzzles, crack codes and uncover hidden messages as you dive into our drug trial-themed escape room. Can you enrol the patient before the time runs out?
Ever wondered what it’s really like to work in a job in science and tech? Come and talk to a range of employers for all the honest detail.
Our taster lessons are open to all! Whether you are a complete beginner or an advanced speaker of German, come and join us to see how German is taught at the Goethe-Institut.
Create your own digital printing artwork with scientists working on low cost electronics, solar cells and sensors.
Enjoy an audio experience exploring a biological mystery inside us all, and meet the people whose lives and research inspired the story.
Join storytelling engineers at our pop-up sessions especially for children aged five and under.
A dance performed by local school pupils, a youth group and professionals all inspired by the latest research into blood cancer currently taking place at Imperial College London.
Go behind the scenes for a look at the Museum's fascinating zoology collection preserved in spirit.
Be one of few select audience to watch Nexus, a powerful film co-produced by young people about the importance of social connection during Covid-19, and inform our next film.
Find out how a moment of lockdown inspiration started artist Peter Brathwaite on a journey rediscovering the history of Black subjects in Western art and literature.
A creative workshop full of drawings and conversation. Explore insights from a Sickle Cell design research project and enjoy a fun interactive workshop. Come, play and learn.
Visit and engage with our resident contemporary artists in their on-site studios. Open Studios give you a chance to see the artists at work and discuss their process and practice.
Explore six fascinating worlds as part of a musical journey through our solar system
What is invisible but all around us? Discover the hidden forces within the universe and how something seemingly small can have a massive impact.
Discover how atoms absorb and emit light to colour our world. Don some headphones and hit the dance floor, boogying to atomic spectra and finding the parallels between light and sound waves.
Join author and storyteller Wendy Shearer for Caribbean folktales. You are invited to participate in magical tales of shapeshifters and tricksters from a variety of islands.
Explore how molecules of different shapes and sizes are all around and even inside of us during this live interactive show for all the family.
Dive into the waters of the Jurassic period. Join Luke Muscutt to explore the secrets of the Plesiosaurus.
The architects’ agency Cookies, in partnership with Imperial College and Institut français, will explore the notion of concrete, and the numerous forms it can take, during a series of workshops.
From K-Pop to Squid Games, V&A Curator Rosalie Kim looks at how pioneering tech and digital culture turned South Korea into a leading artistic and cultural powerhouse.
Explore the origins of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and how it led to the current festival we see today.
Find out what it is like coming face to face with a prehistoric giant, and learn about the eating habits that helped make Titanosaurs so large.
Discover how lived experience of childbirth inspired a whole new career.
Take on the role of scientists and explore the oceans in this adventure into the deep.
One day a human will encounter the last ever butterfly. What stories will we tell future generations about our planet?
Take a short guided tour of the Images of Nature gallery and see some of the most treasured artworks and archive items.
Explore the finest art and industrial design of the day during this discussion of the first World’s Fair.
Explore the relationship between the seen and unseen with artist Jacques Nimki.
Join us for an adults-only celebration of science at a special late opening. Challenge yourself to a quiz, take part in hands-on workshops and enjoy live music curated by AZEEMA.
Come and join us! Wake up Schrödinger’s cat and learn some basic German in this interactive session of yoga and games.
Take refuge from the festival activities in the cinema at the Goethe-Institut where we will be screening outstanding films. Drop in anytime!
Join a friendly team of musicians for a morning of feel-good music-making
Families who need a quieter, calmer environment can book to explore the Family Fun zone with fewer crowds. Try some experiments, play, make, meet scientists and enjoy a story.
Ever wondered what it’s really like to work in a job in science and tech? Come and talk to a range of employers for all the honest detail.
Make mosquito melodies and find out how music is used by these flying bugs to find their perfect mate.
Join a live recording of the Robot Talk Podcast to explore how much science fiction influences how we see the future of robotics – for good and for bad.
Photographs suspend time and allow us a window into war, love and loss.
Britain's first astronaut, Helen Sharman, hosts maritime experts for a discussion on submarines, autonomous drones, satellite measurements, and other technologies that will help us go where no human has gone before.
Space scientist and BBC broadcaster Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock (MBE) answers all the questions kids have about the universe.
Explore the night sky and hear the story behind one of our favourite constellations.
Professor David Nutt explores the history of mind-altering drugs in science and society.
Architecture studio Cookies, in partnership with Imperial College London and Institut Français, will explore how ancient craft and knowledge can be an inspiration for cutting-edge materials science.
Esther Osarfo-Mensah tells her awesome story of diving back into the world of academic science and finding community.
Hear how a dyslexia diagnosis powered self-discovery and growth.
50 years after the last human left the moon, space scientist and science educator Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock takes us back, exploring folklore, facts, and our plans to return astronauts to the surface.
Poets and space scientist take to the stage to discuss the inspirational nature of space and perform their favourite cosmic poems – including some written by the public over the festival weekend.
Ever wondered how a Symphony Orchestra rehearses? Want to have a peek behind the scenes?
