Manchester Science Festival creates a place for innovative, surprising and meaningful experiences, where people of all ages can ignite their curiosity in science.
Our visitors are at the heart of everything we do, meaning we have always kept our programme inclusive and accessible to everyone.
2024
Manchester Science Festival returned from Friday 18 – Sunday 27 October 2024.
The festival explored the extremes of nature, human capability and creativity through entertaining events, immersive performances, family fun and hands-on activities across 10 days of inspiring experiences.
Gallery
2022
Manchester Science Festival 2022 took place between Friday 21 – Sunday 30 October, returning as a live event for the first time since 2018. The festival featured world first experiences including headline exhibition Turn It Up: The power of music and out-out-of-this-world immersive experience Giant Leaps by acclaimed choreographer Corey Baker.
The packed festival line-up delivered 10 days of fun, discovery and entertainment as it explored one of life's most crucial questions—what does the future hold for humanity?—with events taking place at the Science and Industry Museum, Central Library, Manchester Arndale and the Castlefield Viaduct.
2022 in pictures
Family fun at Manchester Central Library
A science show at the museum
Trying on the CuteCircuit HugShirt at the Future of Sex: Late event
Liquorice Black at the Future of Sex: Late event
Noisy Toys performing at Manchester Arndale
Family fun at Manchester Arndale
Bat hunting at the Sky Park After Dark event at Castlefield Viaduct
© National Trust Images. Photo by David Bewick.2021
Manchester Science Festival 2021 took place digitally between Friday 12 – Sunday 21 February. It featured a programme packed full of free online talks, exhibitions, debates and activities exploring our changing climate and ideas for a better world.
You can rewatch the live talks and hear from scientists and experts at the forefront of the fight against climate change, listen to local voices making a difference in our communities and discover practical ways you can help to protect the natural world.
2018
The 12th year of Manchester Science Festival featured the award-nominated Distortions in Spacetime, by Marshmallow Laser Feast, where visitors could step inside a black hole and be taken to the singularity and beyond. Unlimited Theatre invited us to You Have Been Upgraded, a tech showcase like no other featuring cyborgs, human enhancements and technology that could make you live forever (or at least for a very long time). And our headline exhibition was Electricity: The spark of life, considering humans' battle to understand and tame this awe inspiring natural force.
2018 in pictures
Tilly Lockey, one of the special guests at You Have Been Upgraded
Distortions in Spacetime
A live tattooing session at the You Have Been Upgraded event, by artist DC, AKA Rebecca De Cadorette
You Have Been Upgraded host Jon Spooner having a microchip implanted into his hand
At In Conversation: Plastics Action, Prof Mark Miodownik and the BBC’s Paddy O’Connell shared their tips for reducing our plastic use
One of the most popular events at Central Library was Ibn al-Haytham: Mysteries of How We See, which explored the work of the 10th century Arabian scientist
Josh Award winner Mat Allen’s workshop allowed people to experience the constellations in a new way.
MICROBiHOME, at the University of Salford’s GameLab, took visitors inside the human body to experience the amazing microbes that keep us alive
Artist Ya-Chu Kang created an incredible dirt carpet in our textiles gallery, which visitors were then invited to walk over
Young visitors to Waters Wacky Lab got hands-on with science, creating giant bubbles in the Upper Yard of the museum
2017
The 11th year of Manchester Science Festival featured Tape, an immersive art work created by Numen/For Use, inspired by spider webs, allowing visitors a 'Spider's eye view' of the world. BBC Tomorrow’s World Live was broadcast live from the museum, and our Robots exhibition was opened.
The museum was also home to robot dogs as part of our Robots Playground and Robots: Late events. Across Greater Manchester, visitors got hands-on with VR at the University of Salford's GameLab, explored air raid shelters, and raved their way into the day.
2017 in pictures
Manchester Science Festival 2017 began with a bang as VIPs from across the city were joined by dancing robots for the festival launch
Councillor Eddy Newman, Lord Mayor of Manchester, meets one of the robots at the 2017 festival launch
Tape, by artists Numen/For Use, was the smash hit success of the festival, with tickets selling out every day. The enormous structure was built using 330 rolls of sticky tape.
Visitors relax in the AquAIRium installation, at the MediaCityUK campus of the festival’s lead educational sponsors, the University of Salford
Young visitors to the museum meet Miro, a 'robot pet', at the Robots Playground event
Dr Hannah Fry, who hosted Tomorrow’s World Live along with Dr Jen Gupta, gets excited about the future of robotics. The event was livestreamed from the museum across the world.
Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy takes the audience through the connections between music and maths at The Music of Proof, an event produced by the RNCM
RuBot II, 'The Cubinator', demonstrates its ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube in under 30 seconds
Are your spidey senses tingling? A group of Spidermen got to grips with Tape
Adam Dean
Josh Award winner Jon Chase presents the Hip Hop Science Stop Weekender, inspiring young people with the science of graffiti and Star Wars
2016
The 10th birthday year of Manchester Science Festival started with The Chronarium Sleep Lab at Manchester Arndale, produced by Loop.pH, an immersive experience exploring sleep. Public Service Broadcasting performed their album The Race For Space in full for the first time at the Albert Hall and Parisian artists HeHe brought Cloud Crash to the museum.
Other Festival highlights at the museum included a special visit from Tim Peake, fresh from his trip into space; live mosquitos and melting ice blocks at the Royal Society Science Exhibition, science busking with Siemens, listening to a robot orchestra and hearing from the producers of BBC's Planet Earth II reveal the stories behind the scenes.
Across Greater Manchester, we heard The Music of Star Wars with the Hallé Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall, experienced a sensory sound pit, got hands-on with science at Manchester Museum, the University of Salford, The Whitworth and at The Runaway Visitors Park, Manchester Airport with National Environmental Research Council.
2016 in pictures
Public Service Broadcasting kicked off the 2016 Manchester Science Festival in style
The Cloud Crash installation at the museum
The Robot Orchestra performing at the museum
