The next edition of the Great Exhibition Road Festival finally returns to South Kensington next weekend!
The annual Great Exhibition Road Festival is back on 7-8 June, led by Imperial College London in collaboration with neighbouring cultural and educational institutions on and around Exhibition Road—including the Natural History Museum, V&A and Science Museum.
Planning on coming along with a family, or visiting as a group of adults? The Festival team have put together a series of itineraries featuring events for different age groups to help visitors get the most out of the weekend: Adult Highlights, Family Favourites, Young People Picks.
Imperial science takes centre stage
World-leading research from our Imperial community will be on display at hundreds of interactive exhibitions, sparking conversations with the public and sharing innovations across Medicine, Engineering, Earth Sciences, Quantum Physics and more!
Scientists and engineers from the Musculoskeletal Mechanics Laboratory will be in the Be A Scientist Zone, highlighting technological advancements helping people move again after injury. Festival goers will be able to watch prosthetics being 3D printed before their eyes and try walking on a special prosthetic leg.
The Imperial’s Ophthalmology Research Group will help engage visitors in what it’s like to experience vision loss and learn about their research focused on prevention and protecting sight. Or learn how scientists from the Centre for Synthetic Biology can potentially revolutionize the fashion industry as they showcase how algae can be used as a sustainable resource for textiles and offer biodegradable fibres and dyes.
Immersive Experiences
Enter the LMS Gene Home, an immersive experience that transports you into a 1970s West Indian Living Room to find out the secrets of genetics! Fish for hormones in the bathroom, make your very own marvellous medicine in the kitchen, before heading to the sunny yard to play a Vitamin D Sunshuffle game and learn more about sunscreen protection.
Explore Resonating Possibilities in an audio-visual experience developed by Studio Above&Below with Quantum scientists at Imperial, where visitors will experience the concept of Quantum Superposition through digital art and reflect on how we can shape reality itself.
Take part in a cutting-edge augmented reality experience with the Dyson School of Design Engineering’s Immersive Sound Lab, exploring how sound interacts with the physical world. Visitors will be feeding into live research at Imperial, helping designers understand how we perceive spatial audio and influencing the future of immersive environments.
Inspiring talks
Settle down and watch inspiring talks and panel discussions at one of the festivals talk series: Art of Science and Spotlight Talks.
Hosted in the V&A’s beautiful Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, the Art of Science series explores people and projects linking science and art:
- Design and Disability – Join the curator of the V&A's new ‘Design and Disability’ exhibition to explore how disabled people are hacking, redesigning and subverting design.
- Art on the Psychiatric Ward – Experience a performance and discussion of Harold Offeh’s unique work with psychiatric wards, aiming to bring colour, culture and art to these clinical surroundings
- Dancing Nature: Science Storytelling Through Ballet – Join our Biology Ballerina for an exploration of the natural world and humanity's impact through pliés and pirouettes.
Back on the Imperial campus, in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building, the Spotlight Talks will cover a range of fascinating topics, from the spectrum of sexuality found across species to robotics and space engineering:
- Why Are We Building Humanoid Robots? – What is driving the demand for more human-like machines, and what roles might they play in our future society?
- Rocket Science and the New Space Race – Join Britain’s first astronaut, Dr Helen Sharman, and an expert panel discussing the engineering marvels that could power humanity to new worlds.
- Queer Natural History – How gay is nature? Join the author of 'A Little Gay Natural History' to explore the diversity of sexual behaviour in the natural world, which science has tried to cover up or ignore!
Plan your weekend
Thinking of attending the Great Exhibition Road Festival? Most activities are drop-in and run all day, but some are at specific times—read through the timed events schedule for Saturday 7 June and Sunday 8 June to ensure you don’t miss out! You can also book free tickets in advance for some of the most popular events and workshops
Remember to register to stay up to date with the latest Festival updates!
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Reporter
Nisha Emich
Office of the Provost
