Beaker Street Festival has unveiled its captivating program and expanded precinct for the annual week-long celebration of science and art.
The festival returns to nipaluna / Hobart from 6 – 13 August 2024 with timely and immersive experiences, workshops, talks, field trips, open nights, and more.
About Beaker Street Festival
The Beaker Street Festival is a week-long celebration of science and art in Lutruwita/Tasmania each August. Now in its eighth year, It promises a mix of wonder, flavour, and scientifically proven fun. The Festival invites adults from all walks of life to delve into today’s hottest topics with a packed program of science-infused entertainment and discussions while experiencing the best of Tasmanian environments and culture.
Curious minds, adventurers and scientists will descend on nipaluna / Hobart in the pursuit of new experiences, knowledge and fun, with more than 70 Festival events, including the all-new Hobartica – Antarctica in Hobart, complete with polar plunge pools and saunas – and Future Foods dining experiences, plus the return of the beloved Dark Sky events, scientist sessions, exhibitions, and more.
Founder and Festival Director, Dr Margo Adler says, “In curating the Festival, we delve into today’s most exciting research and urgent challenges. The result is a compelling mix of thought-provoking entertainment, unexpected experiences, and mind-expanding conversations, which welcomes everyone into science.”
To accommodate the growing popularity of the Festival in its eighth year, attracting thousands of interstate and local visitors, a greater precinct will feature at this year’s Festival, spanning Hobart’s cultural and entertainment hubs and taking in City Hall, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, The Old Mercury Building, Hope & Anchor Tavern, Mawson Place, and pubs, bars, and restaurants around the waterfront and CBD.
The Festival’s events kick off on Tuesday, 6 August, culminating with a weekend of festivities Friday, 9 – Sunday, 11 August. For those looking for more, there’s also an opportunity to recharge on Tassie’s spectacular East Coast during a two-night immersive getaway at Piermont Retreat, 11 – 13 August.
Since its inception, Beaker Street Festival has wowed audiences with unmatched programming, exploring emerging trends and the latest breakthroughs in a fun and welcoming atmosphere.
Beaker Street Festival is produced by Beaker Street, a not-for-profit cultural organisation and registered charity, and is supported by Events Tasmania, City of Hobart, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and National Science Week.
Beaker Street Festival’s 2024 Program:
Hobartica
Head down to Hobart’s waterfront, Australia’s Gateway to Antarctica, to find the last outpost before you hit “The Ice.” Like Antarctica itself, Hobartica is a meeting place for international cultures and polar traditions. Dive into Antarctic plunge pools (a rite of passage for Antarctic workers and a freezing ‘hot trend’ actually backed by science), warm up in Finnish tent saunas, and chat with a phenomenal range of Antarcticans about the science and culture of our southern pole. While you’re there, enjoy a whisky and peer through a telescope at the McHenry Distillery Antarctic Lounge and Observatory.
Future Foods
What’s on the menu in 2050? Visit a curated selection of the city’s best restaurants and bars to experience how Hobart’s most innovative chefs, including Mona Head Chef Vince Trim, imagine our culinary future might taste. A deliciously edible (and quaffable!) experience, where Chefs, producers, agri-scientists, bioengineers, Indigenous knowledge holders, backyard farmers, and high-tech taste testers will bring their expertise to the table as we devour the facts around food production, preparation, and consumption. You’ll be toasting the future of beverages, from the rise of alcohol-alternatives and caffeine-free drinks to climate-friendly wines. Overseen by Beaker Street Festival’s future foods curator Jo Cook.
Wellness Meets Science
We’re putting the biggest trends in health and wellness under the microscope; separating fact from fad, science from pseudoscience. Festival-goers will be able to choose from a program of scientist-led workshops in mindfulness, breathwork, or cold water therapy, as well as discussions with scientists and journalists, including Science Vs’ Wendy Zukerman and The Guardian’s Matilda Boseley, exploring the science behind the latest health and wellness trends, from hormone hacking to adult ADHD.
Dark and Starry
Tasmania’s glorious dark skies come to life in winter when the nights are long and the fires are warm. Dive into the magic of our nights with the Dark Sky Dinner at Frogmore Creek winery (featuring Professor Alan Duffy and Kirsten Banks), Indigenous astronomy with Tasmanian Aboriginal elder and UTAS Senior Indigenous Scholar Theresa Sainty, telescopes on the Hobart waterfront, and discover nature’s evening glow show with Dr Lisa Gershwin. Chasing an elusive aurora or ocean bioluminescence? Sign up to receive alerts for Auroras and Bioluminescence during the Festival dates, and don’t forget your woolly socks.
Festival Epicentre
The heart of the action, the eye of the storm, the place to be in Hobart’s cultural precinct Friday, 9 – Sunday, 11 August. Here, science is anything but boring, with a series of cabaret-style Main Stage sessions and drop-in talks offering an irresistible mix of ideas, music, games, and comedy, with guests such as Dr Karl, Adam Spencer, Tegan Taylor, Zoe Kean, Mibu Fischer and more. Check out a show at City Hall, experience the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery after dark, then drop in to the Roving Scientist Bar at the Hope & Anchor to quench your thirst (for knowledge).
Scientist Sessions
Hobart is Australia’s science capital, with a higher proportion of scientists than any other Australian city. During the Festival, you’ll find more than 150 Roving Scientists kicking back and ready to chat in bars, restaurants, and sometimes even in their natural habitats. Picture pubs with microscopes on every table, live dissections and experiments, and having your questions answered by scientists who know the subject better than Google. Midweek (6 – 8 August), stop hibernating and join the Night Crawl, including a collaboration with Science in the Pub and a rare chance to check out Australia’s most significant marine and Antarctic research institutions.
Field Trips
Escape the daily grind, leave the city behind, and discover the wilds of Tasmania alongside scientists and local legends. Join a Rivulet walk with the ‘Platypus Guardian’ Pete Walsh, visit the tallest flowering trees in the world at Mount Field National Park, learn to grow mushrooms in an abandoned railway tunnel, or uncover an enchanted slime mould forest with Sarah Lloyd, one of the leading experts in the world.
Arty Stuff
Exhibitions, installations, explorations at the intersection of science and art. Stimulate your brain’s right hemisphere at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, with an exhibition of the Beaker Street Science Photography Prize finalists, the launch of Through Our Eyes (an exhibition by the Antarctic Women’s Network), and tours of the newly-reopened Antarctic and Southern Oceans exhibition, Islands to Ice. Learn about the impacts of marine plastics on seabirds at Adrift Lab, an installation at Detached, or catch the premiere of ‘Platypus Guardian’ Pete Walsh’s new doco, Becoming Platypus.
Piermont East Coast Retreat
Take a deep dive into Tasmania’s stunning east coast, with a two-night getaway to the luxurious Piermont Retreat. The package includes dinners of local and seasonal produce by chef Calvin King, featuring talks by scientists and changemakers such as Sea Forest’s Sam Elsom. Guests will enjoy guided stargazing on the beach with the Astronomical Society of Tasmania, local tours and tastings, plus scientist-led breathwork, cold water plunges, a talk on the science of happiness and more. It’s the perfect way to relax and recharge at the end of the festival week.
