A walk through the Edinburgh Science Festival programme

Science - dates

For over 30 years the Edinburgh Science Festival - the world’s first and Europe’s biggest science festival – has served up fun and facts in a bid to get everyone interested in science. Running from 1 to 16 April, this year’s festival is spread across 31 venues and locations around Edinburgh and one-third of it is free to access. And unlike many other festivals it’s not all about sitting still and listening to experts. They want people to get involved, get out and about, get their hands dirty, and get social with science. And with the 2023 theme being Let's Experiement, let’s take a quick look through the programme in five easy steps.

1. There's lots of family fun

ER at City Art Centre during the 2014 Science Festival, photographer Allan MacDonald, credit Edinburgh International Science Festival

At the heart of the festival is it's family programme with lots of fun and inspiring events for children, young people and adults, including:

  • the perfect, inspirational day out at City Art Centre where you can explore five floors packed with workshops and interactive events perfect for kids up to 12 years old. Parents can join in the fun too with drop-in workshops and our digital art exhibitions.
  • with your City Art Centre Day Pass, you'll have access to any number of drop-in activities and up to three bookable workshops – the perfect day of science fun! You can mix and match any workshop including Splat-tasticBlood BarER Surgery, Wild Vets, Imagination Playground, and Creative Coding.  
  • Experimental Life at the National Museum of Scotland (3-14 April) is a new, free, interactive experience inviting everyone to take a deep dive into the weird and wonderful diversity of life and includes the Trees of Life installation exploring Darwin’s revolutionary theory of evolution
  • also at the National Museum of Scotland are two family-friendly, hands-on weekends filled with fantastic shows and new activities:
  • FutureFest (1-2 April), a celebration of technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, coding, computers, and space
  • and EarthFest (15-16 April) invites the participants to learn more about our planet, the animals that live here and how we can take care of them.

2. And sociable science for the adults

Gastrofest at the 2014 Edinburgh International Science Festival

As every year, Edinburgh Science Festival produces a range of entertaining science events with a twist for adults, including:

3. While we also tackle the Big Ideas, focusing on the Climate Crisis

Science - Patricia Espinosa

With programming for the Planet a continuing focus for the Festival, this year features an inspiring line-up of speakers and events including:

4. And explore the connections between Science and Art

Science - 3607

Each year the Edinburgh Science Festival commissions or exhbiits artists who work in the grey space between art and science, exploring the connections that many do not see and helping us to look at science in a different way:

  • Summerhall’s galleries house Interlinked (1 April – 15 May), a fascinating series of exhibitions and events from visual artists exploring themes of earth, climate, sustainability, biodiversity, micro-life and humanity by experimenting with scientific processes and practices.
  • Darkroom Ecology by environmental artist Scott Hunter which explores the co-existence of ecological and industrial materials;
  • Lost, a climate action exhibition featuring a collection of 18 #LitterCUBES stitched and woven together from thousands of pieces of beach litter plastic;
  • 3607 by artist Kexin Liu examines microorganisms living in the human body and their impact on our sense of “self”;
  • Earth, Soil + Filth by interdisciplinary artist Agatha Smith explores the soil as an indicator of the future and a record of our human struggle.
  • Dynamic Earth hosts a range of fantastic late-night art/science events incluidng When Fish Begin to Crawl (15 April), a world premiere co-directed by filmmaker Morag McKinnon and composer Jim Sutherland, of a meditation on the climate crisis and humanity’s relationship with nature; 
  • also at Dynamic Earth is A Night in the Stars (4 April), a multi-art form celebration of the scientific achievement that is the James Webb Space Telescope; 
  • and Biomimicry (5 April) explores the practice of learning to solve human and scientific conundrums through mimicking nature, with examples from the world of fashion, AI and digital art, again at Dynamic Earth;

5. With lots of events around the city 

Science - Portobello2

Besides the core festival venues at City Art Centre, National Musuem of Scotland, and Dynamic Earth, you can find amazing experiences across the city region:

That's just a snapshot of the Edinburgh Science Festival [1 to 16 April 2023] and you can download the full festival brochure HERE or explore the online listings HERE. Now, let's get out there and Let's Experiment this Easter.

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