Manchester Science Festival kicks off 10 days of Scientific fun and discovery

Manchester Science Festival has welcomed its first visitors this morning, kicking off 10 days of scientific fun, discovery and entertainment.

The Science and Industry Museum, which produces the festival, has opened the doors to two world-first experiences, as well as a host of family-fun, hands-on exploration and after-hours events. 

Interactive exhibition, Turn It Up: The power of music has made its world premiere at the Festival. The first visitors have already been experimenting with beats, melodies and harmonies on the specially commissioned Musical Playground, as well as exploring unusual instruments, hearing brand new musical commissions and discovering how music can impact our emotions and actions.

This morning’s festivalgoers have also become the first to take part in an out-of-this-world experience that saw them transported into outer space, where they could influence the movements of stars and space dust. Giant Leaps is the brainchild of acclaimed choreographer, Corey Baker, and will contribute towards his ambition of creating the first dance in space.

Manchester Science Festival will run until Sunday 30 October to delight half-term audiences through world premiere events and experiences, immersive performances, after-hours amusement and interactive activities. It’s returning for the first time in four years live and in-person, and this year is themed around exploring what the future holds for humanity. Explore the programme and book tickets via the museum’s website.

Ella Wild, Head of Festivals and Events at the Science and Industry Museum, said: “We are delighted to have welcomed the first guests through the doors for this year’s Manchester Science Festival. This is such a special event for the museum, and for the city as whole, as we support our audiences to explore their STEM skills through an awe-inspiring selection of fun, playful and insightful experiences. We hope everyone who visits will leave feeling entertained, inspired and hopeful about their future world.”

John Boumphrey, UK Country Manager at Amazon, said: “We’re proud to be the principal sponsor for this year’s in-person return of the Manchester Science Festival, which will treat visitors to some truly entertaining, insightful and educational hands-on experiences. At Amazon, we believe we have a great opportunity to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds to learn more about science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and through our Amazon Future Engineer and Amazon Web Services GetIT programmes, we’re helping more students from diverse backgrounds to discover the exciting opportunities that computer science and STEM careers hold.

“Throughout the Festival this week and next, you can join our teams from Amazon and AWS for a series of drop-in workshops and interactive experiments where people can dive into app design, machine learning, AI and more, so we hope to see you there!”

Manchester Science Festival is supported by Amazon (Principal Sponsor) University of Salford (Lead Educational Partner) Waters Corporation (Major Sponsor), PPG (Major Partner) and AIG (Associate Sponsor).