Cheltenham Science Festival

The tradition & historical record

Cheltenham Science Festival is one of the UK's leading science festivals, and is part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for the Jazz, Music and Literature Festivals that run every year. The 2018 Cheltenham Science Festival (6–11 June) was held in Imperial Square, Cheltenham. ¹

The youngest of the Cheltenham Festivals, the Cheltenham Science Festival was first held in 2002, and has quickly grown to become one of the most significant of its kind in the UK. ¹

The guest directors for Cheltenham Science Festival 2017 are television presenter and actor Dallas Campbell and former NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan. The Festival has attracted many significant names in Science over the years, including Robert Winston (the first 'guest director' in 2004), David Puttnam (Director 2005), Jonathon Porritt (Director 2007), Adam Hart-Davis, Susan Greenfield, Richard Dawkins, Lucy Hawking, A. C. Grayling, Tony Robinson and Richard Hammond. In 2014 the guest directors were BAFTA winning naturalist Steve Backshall and radio and TV presenter Richard Bacon. ¹

The Cheltenham Science Festival aims to engage in entertaining, challenging and deliberately discussing controversial issues and experiences. The 2017 programme contained over 140 events across six-days, including a number of dedicated family events. ¹

A main feature of the festival is the Discover Zone. Billed as 'Interactive Science for all ages', it is a free interactive exhibition space that takes up the main space of Cheltenham's Town Hall. ¹

FameLab was set up in 2005 by Cheltenham Science Festival in partnership with NESTA. In Famelab, contestants give short (maximum three minute) presentations unaided by slides on an area of science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) that they have been researching. They aim to give their presentation in a way that engages the general public, not simply scientists etc. who already have technical or specific knowledge on the area. This point is taken into account by the judging panel, usually science communicators themselves, who assess the communicators on clarity, content and communication before deciding whom to put through to the next round of competition. Famelab has regional heats in its participating countries, followed by national finals and then the international finals taking place every year at Cheltenham Science Festival. In 2007, the competition was adopted by the British Council as one of its flagship science engagement projects, first as a South East Europe pilot. By 2010, Famelab expanded to include 14 nations across Europe, Asia and Africa, setting the stage for a growing global phenomenon. In 2015 the competition operated in 30 locations including the USA via NASA, 29 of which participated in international finals in June 2015. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Cheltenham Science Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Cheltenham Science Festival is UK Science Festival, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²