FUTURE YOU ZONE
Supported by Catalent
Delve into the science behind what makes you you and explore the latest health and wellbeing innovations.
We are at one of the most important and exciting times in the history of research and innovation in the UK. The rate of discovery and technological advance is astonishing, with unprecedented opportunities to create value for society and the economy. The science fiction of just a few decades ago, from video calls to bionic limbs, is now part of everyday life. This is a new industrial revolution, driven by the pace of technological change. As CEO of the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation, Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser will answer questions from Festival Director Dr Rod Hebden, and the audience about the responsibility of UK Research and Innovation to ensure the health of the system as a whole, now and in the future.
Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser - CEO, UK Research & Innovation
Dr Roderick Hebden - Director, Festival of Tomorrow
All tickets free
A whirlwind introduction to the brain and nervous system! Packed with memorable large-scale demos, you’ll create a giant neuron live on stage to explore how nerve cells communicate. Then, watch as we hijack those signals to control someone's movements (preferably a teacher!)! Along the way we investigate what this tells us about how we learn, helping students understand their brains better, and learn how to make the most of them.
By Braintastic!
Adults £2 (Under 18s free)
From keeping professional and elite athletes at peak performance, to getting the best from your own training at home, science is at the centre of modern sport. Not to mention the latest innovative tech, including when things go wrong. Young Swindon 105.5 presenter, Ayaan Jami quizes a panel of experts, including a former Wales international rugby player, a Sport & Exercise Science lecturer, and a company trialling wearable brain-scanning technology on real players.
All tickets free
Back by popular demand, this year Wonderstruck return with their most dangerous show of all!
Why do we get so much of our energy from burning stuff?
The Dangerous Science Show uses this key question as an opportunity to squeeze some of our most dangerous demonstrations into one frantic hour of science-based excitement.
The show explores the role that hot gas has played in the development of human civilisation through the medium of whips, burning axes, facial heat shields and the odd explosion or two.
If you like your science hot, noisy and with an element of risk then this is most definitely the show for you!
Adults £4 (Under 18s free)
How do we mobilise a generation to take action for nature? Join us for a behind the scenes look at Wild Isles, a new broadcast focused on UK nature, and the People’s Plan for Nature - new initiatives being delivered in partnership between RSPB, National Trust and WWF - UK.
Helen Meech - Head of Movement Building, RSPB
Alex Hunt - Head of Advocacy and Policy, National Trust
All Tickets Free
Festival Entry and tickets for Friday shows and events
Explore our amazing exhibitors, chat with leading researchers, engineers and artists, watch live demonstrations and take part in FREE hands on family activities and workshops.
THERE'S ALWAYS SO MUCH TO SEE AND DO - MAKE SURE YOU ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME FOR YOUR VISIT!
Register and add your Friday shows and events to your Entry Registration in one booking
Book now
Explore our amazing exhibitors, chat with leading researchers, engineers and artists, watch live demonstrations and take part in FREE hands on family activities and workshops.
THERE'S ALWAYS SO MUCH TO SEE AND DO - MAKE SURE YOU ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME FOR YOUR VISIT!
Register and add your Saturday shows and events to your Entry Registration in one booking
Book now
Book Online-only access here for selected talks and panels
A number of our more in-depth talks and panels will be hybrid events, with panellists/attendees able to join the event online, as well as in the theatre.
If you can't be in the room, this is the next best thing, and we'll try to include your questions for our panellists using an interactive online event platform.
You only need one Virtual Access Ticket for each event you want to join, no matter how many people are watching with you.
Book now
Pippa Chick is Global Account Director for Intel’s Health and Life Science team helping healthcare organisations to innovate through with technology. From touchless computing to 3D athlete tracking, BBC Radio science journalist, Roland Pease will attempt to find out how tech may be about to change everything about the limits of our bodies.
Roland Pease - BBC Radio science journalist
Pippa Chick - Global Account Director Health and Life Science, Intel
All tickets free
Supported by UK Research & Innovation
We are at one of the most important and exciting times in the history of research and innovation in the UK. The rate of discovery and technological advance is astonishing, with unprecedented opportunities to create value for society and the economy. The science fiction of just a few decades ago, from video calls to bionic limbs, is now part of everyday life. This is a new industrial revolution, driven by the pace of technological change. As CEO of the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation, Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser will answer questions from Festival Director Dr Rod Hebden, and the audience about the responsibility of UK Research and Innovation to ensure the health of the system as a whole, now and in the future.
Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser - CEO, UK Research & Innovation
Dr Roderick Hebden - Director, Festival of Tomorrow
All tickets free
As the world races to find a way to produce the energy we need without burning fossil fuels, solar, wind and nuclear fission dominate most of the debate. But the promise of clean, safe, limitless power from fusion feels tantalisingly close, but still out of reach. BBC science journalist, Roland Pease, gets straight to the crux of the challenge in the second of his Big Quesions series, asking the researchers working on the problem if we're really going to get there.
Adults £2 (Under 18s free)
Supported by UK Space Agency
Humans will soon make their first trip to Mars. How will we get there? What challenges will you have to overcome and what spectacular sights await the successful? In a talk packed full of stunning visuals and the latest scientific thinking, astronomer and author, Colin Stuart will take you on a journey to the Red Planet to witness the majesty of a Martian sunset. Based on several of his books, including The Astronaut Selection Test Book with Tim Peake, you’ll hear just what it’ll take to achieve the most audacious feat of exploration ever attempted. He'll even bring a real piece of Mars with me in the form a Martian meteorite. Strap in for the voyage of a lifetime!
Adults £2 (Under 18s free)
Supported by the Science Museum Group
A massively-magnified influenza virus particle, a toy duck used by scientists to identify landing sites on a comet for a space mission, and a Thomas the Tank Engine toy made in Swindon. These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of objects that have been moved to the new National Collections Centre at Wroughton, with many available to view online. Dr Laura Humphreys, Curator and Collections Information Manager will give an update on the project, the incredible objects they've uncovered and answer your questions about the future of the site.
Dr Laura Humphreys, Science Museum Group
All tickets free
In a fun talk, author of Lighting Often Strikes Twice Twice Brian Clegg explores some of the ways we can get it wrong about the way the world works, and how science can often surprise us.
We'll be exploring common misperceptions from the the title behaviour of lightning, to toast falling butter side down, the suicidal behaviour of lemmings, the confusing nature of food packaging and far more. You'll even take part in a long-running science experiment.
Adults £2 (Under 18s free)
A whirlwind introduction to the brain and nervous system! Packed with memorable large-scale demos, you’ll create a giant neuron live on stage to explore how nerve cells communicate. Then, watch as we hijack those signals to control someone's movements (preferably a teacher!)! Along the way we investigate what this tells us about how we learn, helping students understand their brains better, and learn how to make the most of them.
By Braintastic!
Adults £2 (Under 18s free)
Supported by UK Space Agency and SSTL
Cubesats, miniaturisation, spaceports and moon bases - the UK is working on them all. Multi-award-winning astronomy author, writer and speaker, Colin Stuart, chairs this panel of experts from across the UK space sector about the future of space in the UK.
Lily Forward, Systems Engineer for Lunar Pathfinder Satellite Programme, SSTL
Joel Freedman, Head of Innovation Services at Satellite Applications Catapult
Dhara Patel, Space Expert at the National Space Centre, Leicester
All tickets free
From keeping professional and elite athletes at peak performance, to getting the best from your own training at home, science is at the centre of modern sport. Not to mention the latest innovative tech, including when things go wrong. Young Swindon 105.5 presenter, Ayaan Jami quizes a panel of experts, including a former Wales international rugby player, a Sport & Exercise Science lecturer, and a company trialling wearable brain-scanning technology on real players.
All tickets free
Supported by UK Space Agency
Billed as a successor to Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope was the largest, most expensive and most ambitious space telescope ever launched. It was plagued with delays and increasing budgets and very nearly never flew at all. In the third of his Big Questions series, BBC science journalist Roland Pease brings together a summary of the stunning images and discoveries with some of the UK scientists working on the satellite instruments and asks if it's all really been worth it.
Adults £2 (Under 18s free)
Back by popular demand, this year Wonderstruck return with their most dangerous show of all!
Why do we get so much of our energy from burning stuff?
The Dangerous Science Show uses this key question as an opportunity to squeeze some of our most dangerous demonstrations into one frantic hour of science-based excitement.
The show explores the role that hot gas has played in the development of human civilisation through the medium of whips, burning axes, facial heat shields and the odd explosion or two.
If you like your science hot, noisy and with an element of risk then this is most definitely the show for you!
Adults £4 (Under 18s free)
From Hybrid elecric planes to ion-powered drones inspired by Star Trek, the challenge is on to find the technologies to power the future of flight. BBC science journalist takes on the future of flight in the last of his Big Questions series, joined by innovators from the UK and live from the US.
Adults £2 (Under 18s free)
How do we mobilise a generation to take action for nature? Join us for a behind the scenes look at Wild Isles, a new broadcast focused on UK nature, and the People’s Plan for Nature - new initiatives being delivered in partnership between RSPB, National Trust and WWF - UK.
Helen Meech - Head of Movement Building, RSPB
Alex Hunt - Head of Advocacy and Policy, National Trust
All Tickets Free
Delve into the science behind what makes you you and explore the latest health and wellbeing innovations.
Visit the stars with our planetarium shows, discover the latest on UK’s role in the space sector or make some out of this world art.
Prepare to be wowed by amazing live demonstrations by some of the young scientists of tomorrow, and try your hand at fun engineering challenges for the family.
Discover how AI, Cyber and technology are shaping our world, with lot of intriguing demonstrations and activities.
Our planet is incredible. Meet the organisations and innovators who are working to help care for our environment and tackle the challenges of climate change.
We are driven by a mission to inspire, inform and entertain communities across Swindon and the UK.
This is only possible with the support of our donors, partners, funders, exhibitors and volunteers.
Find out out you can support us here.
We are driven by a mission to inspire, inform and entertain communities across Swindon and the UK, to share the knowledge, research and creativity to help shape our future.
This is only possible with the support of our sponsors, partners, funders, and exhibitors.
Our Festival Schools' programme reaches thousands of local school students every year, thanks to the support of our funders and partners.
If you are a teacher at a Swindon or WHFT school, find out more here.
We love to see your highlights of your favourite moments a the festival each year, so make sure you post yours and tag us on social media, using #FestivalOfTomorrow
Here are a few of our favourite moments!
