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Manchester’s popular Science Festival confirms its highly-anticipated 2024 return

And YOU can be a part of history this year.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 15th January 2024

Manchester’s massively-popular Science Festival has confirmed it will be making a grand return for 2024 later this year.

Fancy playing some games in the name of science, and helping to discover the key to maintaining healthy brains and bodies while you’re at it? Well, thankfully, Manchester Science Festival is back once again for 2024 – and it’s giving you the chance to do just that.

Not only is it one of the UK’s most popular science festivals, but this year, Manchester Science Festival – which is produced and staged at Manchester‘s legendary Science and Industry Museum in the heart of the city centre every other year – is offering visitors the unique opportunity to become a genuine part of history.

You’ll do this by participating in what will be the world’s largest online study into “the elusive relationship” between the brain and body. 

Returning from Friday 18 – Sunday 27 October, the 2024 festival’s programme of events will “explore extremes” and give festivalgoers a shot at getting hands-on with some of science’s most cutting-edge developments, as well as delving into some of the biggest questions facing our planet.

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Think multi-sensory experiences, immersive performances, and so much more.

As mentioned, ahead of this year’s event, the festival has collaborated with researchers at Western University over in Canada to launch a pioneering series of online brain games that will help a team of world-renowned neuroscientists to discover more about the links between physical and cognitive health.

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Manchester Science Festival is making a highly-anticipated return later this year / Credit: Science Museum Group

As well as being fun to take part in, each completed survey will give participants instant results and support them in learning about how their own brain functions, all while helping the neuroscientists identify activities and lifestyle habits that could improve or maintain the functioning of our brains for longer.

Anyone who signs up to the survey will have a chance to to win some Amazon vouchers, and the findings of the experiment will be explored at this year’s Manchester Science Festival.

Speaking ahead of the return of Manchester Science Festival for 2024 later this year, Sally MacDonald, who is the Director of the Science and Industry Museum, said: “We can’t wait for Manchester Science Festival’s return this October.

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“It’s a brilliant opportunity to bring together visitors of all ages and interest to be inspired by science in action, and a wonderful way to showcase Manchester’s long-standing position as a leader in progress and innovation. 

Manchester Science Festival is held every other year down at the Science and Industry Museum / Credit: Science Museum Group

“We are delighted to be launching the festival with the pioneering Brain and Body study, and giving more people the unique opportunity to be part of contemporary developments in science and play a role in furthering scientific knowledge to benefit our collective future.”

The ‘Brain and Body study’ is being spearheaded by celebrated neuroscientist, Professor Adrian Owen of Western University.

If you fancy taking part in history, the survey can be completed online here using a desktop, laptop, or tablet, and takes around 75 minutes to fill in – with fun brain games and cognitive challenges all part of the process, and the results shared with you at the end.

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Find out more about what to expect at this year’s Manchester Science Festival 2024 here.

Featured Image – Science Museum Group

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Rochdale’s incredible fire festival will bring blazing sculptures and fiery displays to town this month

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Ignite Fire Festival is back in Rochdale this month. Credit: Supplied

Rochdale will be filled with dazzling pyrotechnic displays later this month when the Ignite Fire Festival returns to town. 

The spectacular free event will see the gardens opposite the Rochdale Town Hall – which reopened to the public earlier this year – transformed with fiery displays, blazing sculptures and illuminated installations. 

The smash hit event debuted last year, attracting more than 10,500 people, and this year’s will be even bigger with three nights of magical family entertainment. 

And the festival will culminate on the Sunday with the Rochdale Christmas lights switch-on. 

Ignite Fire Festival comes from Walk the Plank, the outdoor arts specialists behind some of the UK’s biggest and best outdoor arts events, who have called upon artists and pyro technicians to create the many installations on show. 

Between 5pm and 8pm each night, visitors will be able to walk past fire-based sculptures like goblets of fire, a daisy chain of flaming flowers, a fire bird with blazing eyes, and smaller birds circling a flaming nest – to name just a few.

There’ll also be sculptures that twist, flap and erupt with balls of fire, and ‘In The Balance’ will be a festival highlight, where rotating globes of flame seemingly defy the laws of physics. 

Ignite Fire Festival is back in Rochdale this month. Credit: Supplied
Ignite Fire Festival is back in Rochdale this month. Credit: Supplied

Each evening, a fire drawing designed and made by local residents will be ignited alongside flaming hot performances from some of the UK’s top talent including Flame Oz – a thrilling fire dancing and juggling show. 

There’ll also be performances from Liverpool’s Bring the Fire Project, local favourites Skylight Circus Arts, and street theatre and interactive arts group Travelling Light Circus. 

Visitors should look out for Drum Machine, a 20-strong drumming collective, The Fire Man Dave performing a live fire show with fire eating and juggling, and Astro Aliens, a trio of cosmic beings that will entertain all ages. 

The incredible event, sponsored by car supermarket The Trade Centre UK, is set to take place between Friday 22 and Sunday 24 November. 

Ignite Fire Festival takes place in the gardens opposite the Rochdale Town Hall
Ignite Fire Festival takes place in the gardens opposite the Rochdale Town Hall
There'll be performers as well as pyrotechnic sculptures. Credit; Supplied
There’ll be performers as well as pyrotechnic sculptures. Credit; Supplied
Ignite Fire Festival is back for a second year. Credit: Supplied
Ignite Fire Festival is back for a second year. Credit: Supplied

After exploring the gardens, you’ll be able to pick up hot food, mulled wine and other seasonal drinks served each night.

On Sunday, Father Christmas will be in town to switch on the Christmas lights at 5.30pm in front of the town hall.  

Councillor Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and co-operation at Rochdale Borough Council said: “Last year’s Ignite Fire Festival and Christmas Light’s Switch On was a fantastic event and an instant hit with audiences from across Greater Manchester. 

“It’s an exciting and unique event and the perfect addition to our big switch-on, providing family entertainment across the weekend.”

Mark Bailey, founder and owner of sponsor Trade Centre UK added: “Our partnership with Ignite Fire Festival and the Rochdale Christmas Lights Switch On is a fantastic opportunity to give back to a community that has welcomed us so warmly. 

“At Trade Centre UK, we believe in more than just selling cars; we believe in being part of the fabric of the local area. Supporting events like this, which bring people together to celebrate in the heart of Rochdale, aligns perfectly with our core values of community and connection.”

The event is free, and no tickets are required. Ignite is organised by Rochdale Borough Council in partnership with Walk the Plank and Culture Co-op, a ‘Creative People and Places’ programme, funded by Arts Council England.  

Find out more and plan your visit to Ignite Fire Festival HERE. 

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Featured image: Supplied

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Science and Industry Museum to transform into immersive ‘Light Lab’ as part of 2024 festive events programme

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

One of Manchester’s most popular museums will be transformed into an immersive ‘Light Lab’ for the festive season.

As the temperatures begin to drop and Christmas creeps closer, this is your chance to escape the cold and brighten up the winter holidays with an adventure though light and colour, as the Science and Industry Museum has now unveiled its upcoming festive events programme.

You can also explore a gaming extravaganza, and be engrossed by festive-themed science shows at the city centre-based museum this December.

Back by popular demand, after enchanting visitors of all ages in previous years, the museum’s free Light Lab will be making a return for 2024 – with everyone invited to discover the secrets of light through illuminating activities, special shows, and immersive experiences. 

The Science and Industry Museum will transform into immersive ‘Light Lab’ this winter / Credit: Jason Lock (via Science Museum Group)

As Greater Manchester is known for its grey winter days, a series of illuminating experiments will bring colour to your lives in the interactive Light Lab, where you can explore a hall of mirrors, discover how to bend light, and even take a dance break in the rave room, before taking a journey from the Sun back to the Earth during special science shows led by the museum’s team of expert Explainers.

You’ll be able to discover how light travels through our atmosphere, explore the science of solar flares, and even marvel at a mesmerising display of the Northern Lights – with real NASA footage of the Aurora Borealis.

If all that exploring has got you tired out, then you can slow things down in the Recharge Retreat and get comfortable with a picture book, or explore the relationship between colour and mood and why nature is so important to our health.  

You can escape from the cold, and learn a thing or two while you’re at it / Credit: Science Museum Group

But if you’re looking for a change of pace, you can also enjoy the museum‘s ultimate gaming experience, Power Up, to immerse yourself in a whole host of different digital worlds by working your way through five decades of video games, or learn about how what we eat can have a huge effect on our brains and bodies at the Operation Ouch! exhibition.

Then, for something a little different all together this festive season, you can grab a ticket for the first of the 2024 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures being screened live at the museum on Tuesday 10 December, ahead of the broadcast on the BBC. 

The Winter Holiday Programme at the Science and Industry Museum runs from 14 December 2024 through to 5 January 2025.

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Find out more about everything happening on the museum’s website here.

Featured Image – Science Museum Group

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