Fab free family event this weekend - Imperial Festival

[Pamela78]

Just wanted to share details of an event where I work which is fabulous for families and a really unusual day out - the Imperial Festival.

If you have any budding scientists in your house, drop in at Imperial College London in South Kensington - just next door to the Science Museum.

It takes place on Friday 9 and Saturday 10 May 2014 and will be open to the public at the following times:

16.00 - 22.00 on Friday

12.00 - 18.00 on Saturday

* * * * * *

Materials, microbes, maths and medicine. Explore Imperial's ground breaking research with a packed schedule of activities, talks and performances for all ages.

The Festival is free and open to all ages, so drop in to put your questions to hundreds of scientists and engineers, take part in hands-on science demonstrations, peek behind the scenes of Imperial?s most exciting labs, and enjoy music, dance and comedy.

Highlights include:

* Over 40 stands of hands-on exhibits and experiments in the research zone

* A robot zone dedicated to robotic research, including a dancing robot and robots inspired by insects

* Family activities in the Reach Out Lab, including jelly worms, strawberry DNA, lego challenge and tall structures

* Pop up surgery demonstrations

* Silent disco

Loads more information, and the full programme, is available here - http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/festival

[echo]

thanks for this, it looks fab

I'm going to try to 345 it over there after school on friday

[Gubodge]

Damn, we have a horribly busy weekend ahead of us and won't be able to squeeze it in. We went to this last year though and would thoroughly recommend it; the kids made jelly worms, held clouds in their hands and still talk about it now.

[Cora]

Any chance of feeding back to the organisers that a Sunday tends to be less busy for some families....every year we want to do this but have commitments on Saturdays....shame as sounds fantastic...

[Pamela78]

Thanks Gubodge - sad you can't make it this year, but glad your children still talk about last year! Fingers crossed you can come in 2015!

Cora - I will feed that back to the organising team.

Anyone else who's interested - don't be put off by the forecasted rain over the weekend! Most of the venues are indoors and everything will still be going ahead :-)

[bkkmei]

Hi

just wanted to say a big thanks for posting info on this event. I took my 6 yr old son there yesterday and he LOVED it! Very interesting festival, lots of fun, and loads of stuff for kids to have a go at. Also, I had never visited Imperial College before, and it was a great way to publicise the university & its work.

[JS33]

I wanted to second (or third) the thanks for posting this. I was worried that there wasn't going to be enough there that would be interesting for my 5 year-old, but we spent 3 hours there on Saturday and could have stayed hours longer.

[Pamela78]

So glad to hear you enjoyed it - lovely to read your messages as I rest my aching feet having been volunteering at the event on Friday and Saturday! I'll pass on your comments to the rest of the organising team.

Will post next year's dates when they are confirmed.