Science Festivals, Live Events, and the Importance of Face-to-Face Interaction*

Since at least the dawn of agriculture, humans have gathered in the public square to celebrate what brings them together as a community. Even in our digital age, there is something special about festivals and live events. There is an immediacy to being there in-person: a unique don’t-miss-out buzz and a compelling urgency. Events offer the chance to quickly develop real human relationships, and are rich with the potential for genuine dialogue and exchange. Events need not be tied to one location or venue, and can be quickly adapted to be meaningful and energizing for different audiences. Events can also work at any scale, budget, institutional backing, and level of professionalism, so anyone and any organization can get involved.

As they have for millennia, festivals and events still have the power to energize a community and then periodically reaffirm and renew that energy. What happens when that power is used in the name of science? Over the past two decades, there has been an explosion of experimentation with live public science events in the United States. From intimate discussions of science in a neighborhood pub, to science festival main events that draw tens of thousands in a single day, there is much to learn from these experiments.

Examples of past and ongoing events set the context for a presentation of notable evaluation and research findings related to science events, with a special emphasis on the direct participation of professional scientists. By situating these specific findings within the vast and multi-disciplinary literature dedicated to festival and event studies, a case is made for the importance of face-to-face interaction in every initiative seeking to share science with the public.