Here comes the science bit: why music festivals are going geek – The Guardian

Festivals have long been cosmic experiences havens of music and hedonism designed to whisk you away from reality for 72 hours. Of course, those mind-melting moments usually arrive at 6am in the dance tent rather than watching someone in a lab coat wielding a telescope. Not so in 2017. Blame Brian Cox, blame The Big Bang Theory, but music festivals have gone giddy for geekery.

It simply isnt enough to put bands on in a field anymore, says Paul Reed, general manager of the Association of Independent Festivals. Anyone with money who wants to take a huge gamble can do that. He says areas such as science are a natural step for experiential boutique festivals, which offer alternative activities alongside the music, and who are keen to broaden their audiences and offer them a more cerebral experience.

One such festival is Deer Shed in North Yorkshire. Since 2013 its science tent has gradually grown into a phantasmagoria of dorky delights, mostly geared towards children. This year forensics and slime-making workshops sit alongside live spectrograms, which allow you to see your own voice, modular synth-making sessions and another in which you can solder your own lie detector perfect for nippers and hungover parents alike.

According to its Deer Sheds organisers, the science are has become increasingly popular. Not all kids are arty, not all kids are sporty or into music, explains Oliver Jones, the festivals co-founder. Some kids will spend their whole weekend in the science tent. Thats a mentality also shared by Latitude festival: their Wildlife, Weird Science & Adventure kids area features everything from astronomy classes to a School Of Noise where future Aphex Twins can make their own experimental electronic beats.

Its not just children reaping the benefits of the boom in scientific festivals. Events such as Also festival in Warwickshire and Bluedot at Jodrell Bank observatory are aimed more at adults. The former has been billed as a small festival with big ideas and also been likened to Ted talks in a field. Bluedot, meanwhile, returns this year after its 2016 debut with an astronomy-heavy lineup alongside the musical bill. Its science programme includes talks on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the future of humans in space and the anatomy of a solar eclipse as if the complex time signatures of musical headliners Alt-J werent boggling enough.

Talks such as these bring some sense, says its organisers, to our unsteady world. People are much more interested in science and its place in our lives; were all aware that science and technology will shape the future, says Prof Tessa Anderson, science-culture director of Bluedot. It really expresses a new zeitgeist; [science] is the natural counterbalance to the post-truth manipulation of information.

There are few stars who bridge the worlds of science and music quite like Brian May, who has both Queen guitarist and PhD in astrophysics on his CV. Four years ago he teamed up with fellow astrophysicist Garik Israelian to create Starmus festival in Norway, designed to enhance our knowledge of the universe via science and the arts.

As a child I was forced to choose between art and science as if they were mutually incompatible, says May. I never believed it. I think the Victorians got it right: to be complete human beings, we need an appreciation of everything the universe has to offer. As for what Starmus has to offer, therell be headline talks from Stephen Hawking, Buzz Aldrin and Brian Eno, and performances from guitar hero Steve Vai and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.

Elsewhere, dance music festivals have taken the tech up a notch to explore the relationship between listening to and making music. North Carolinas Moogfest has hundreds of sessions with geektastic names such as For the Love of Audio Gear and 3D Audio Space Jam, while, in the UK, Sheffields No Bounds preps for the main October event with a launch party in June where therell be coding workshops followed by shedding some cells to a set by DJs Nina Kraviz and Helena Hauff.

Creative director Liam O Shea says: No Bounds is about moving beyond boundaries. Its about change, growth, movement and hopefully progress. A little highfalutin it might be, but events such as these hark back to the hippy days when festivals were seen as incubators of change: beards and weirds coming together in an attempt to create accord during difficult times.

If the geek will indeed inherit the Earth, then, it looks like their benign takeover starts with its festivals.

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Here comes the science bit: why music festivals are going geek - The Guardian