If you love science, you’ve gotta make a visit to many of the science festivals organised throughout the UK.
Although not necessarily astronomy biased, but they are always exciting places to visit and involved with to encourage the next generation of scientists, engineers and who knows, even astronauts.
If you would like to get involved with live science events, register at Science Live to join in all the fun. https://www.sciencelive.net
If you are organising a science event and need a speaker on astronomy or spaceflight, lists of suitable speakers are provided by:
The Royal Astronomical Society.
https://ras.ac.uk/education-and-careers/for-schools-and-teachers/1834-list-of-school-speakers
Astrospeakers.
http://www.astrospeakers.org
Science Festivals.
Below is a list of some of the science festival events that I know about.
If I have missed any off that don;t appear in the other two extensive lists below, let me know so they can be added.
British Science Week: 6th – 15th March 2020. Not really a festival in itself, but lots of science events are organised by schools during this exciting week. https://www.britishscienceweek.org
The Big Bang Fair.
Bringing science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to life for young people at festivals throughout the year and around the country.
Big Bang Home Page: https://nearme.thebigbangfair.co.uk/home
Big Bang Fairs across the UK: https://nearme.thebigbangfair.co.uk
I you want Astronomy and Music try these two summer festivals:
Solarsphere: 14th – 17th August 2020. http://www.solarsphere.events
Bluedot Festival: 23rd – 26th July 2020. https://www.discoverthebluedot.com
One of the biggest science festival events of the year is: New Scientist Live. https://live.newscientist.com
Pint of Science: Science presentations given in pubs around the country.
What’s not to like? 11th – 13th May 2020. https://pintofscience.co.uk
See Science Festival – London.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/see-science-festival-2020-exploring-the-science-of-sight-tickets-84867421743
Suffolk Science Festival:15th – 19th February 2020.
https://www.visit-burystedmunds.co.uk/whats-on/suffolk-science-festival-2020
Techfest. http://www.techfest.org.uk
There is an umbrella organisation called The UK Science Festivals Network http://sciencefestivals.uk
A list of their members festivals is shown here: http://sciencefestivals.uk/festival
The big STEM Communicators Network has a list of festivals here:
https://www.big.uk.com/festivals
The British Science Association has a list of UK Science Festivals on their Web site also copied below:
https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/sciencefestivals
Click the links below to visit their Web sites:
| Town, city or county | Festival name | Dates |
| London | Science Fiction Theatre Festival | 27 May – 01 June 2019 |
| Bristol and Bath | Festival of Nature | 01 – 09 June 2019 |
| Gloucestershire | Cheltenham Science Festival | 04 – 09 June 2019 |
| Glasgow | Glasgow Science Festival | 06 – 16 June 2019 |
| Bournemouth | Festival of Learning | 15 – 19 June 2019 |
| Preston | Lancashire Science Festival | 27 – 29 June 2019 |
| London | Imperial Festival | 29 – 30 June 2019 |
| London | Summer Science Exhibition | 01 – 07 July 2019 |
| Essex | Basildon Street Science | 13 July 2019 |
| Bradford | Bradford Science Festival | 18 – 21 July 2019 |
| Cheshire | Bluedot | 18 – 21 July 2019 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | Merthyr Tydfil Science Festival | 20 July 2019 |
| Wales | Science Village, National Eisteddfod of Wales | 03 – 10 August 2019 |
| Birmingham & Manchester | BLAST Fest | 09 -12 August 2019 |
| Coventry & Warwickshire | British Science Festival | 10 – 13 September 2019 |
| Hull | Hull Science Festival | 13 – 15 September 2019 |
| Exeter | Sidmouth Science Festival | 04 – 10 October 2019 |
| Midlothian | Midlothian Science Festival | 05 – 19 October 2019 |
| Dundee | Dundee Science Festival | 05 – 20 October 2019 |
| Peterborough | Peterborough STEM Festival | 12 October 2019 |
| Norwich | Norwich Science Festival | 18 – 26 October 2019 |
| Oxfordshire | IF Oxford | 18 – 28 October 2019 |
| Swansea | Swansea Science Festival | 26 – 27 October 2019 |
| Scotland | Festival of Physics | 26 – 28 October 2019 |
| London | South East London STEAM Festival | 26 October 2019 |
| UK-wide | ESRC Festival of Social Science | 02 – 09 November 2019 |
| Brighton | Brighton Science Festival | February 2020 |
| Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland Science Festival | 14 – 24 February 2020 |
| Nottingham | Nottingham Festival of Science & Curiosity | 12 – 19 February 2020 |
| Cardiff | Cardiff Science Festival | 15 – 18 February 2020 |
| Southampton | Southampton Science & Engineering Festival | 06 – 15 March 2020 |
| Bath | Bath Taps Into Science | 07 – 13 March 2020 |
| Cambridge | Cambridge Science Festival | 09 – 22 March 2020 |
| Abingdon-on-Thames | ATOM Festival | 14 – 22 March 2020 |
| Guildford | Innovate Guildford | March 2020 |
| West Yorkshire | Leeds Festival of Science | March /April 2020 |
| Edinburgh | Edinburgh Science Festival | April 2020 |
| Weston-Super-Mare | Big Bang @ Weston-super-Mare | April 2020 |
| Sheffield | AlgoMech | May 2020 |
| Lincolnshire | Gravity Fields Festival | 23 – 27 September 2020 |
| London | SMASHFest | July 2020 |
| Manchester | Manchester Science Festival | 2020 dates TBA |