Since 2005, Brighton Science Festival has been inspiring young minds across Sussex with our flagship Bright Sparks event – a weekend of hands-on, accessible science fun for youngsters and their parents. Twelve years later, we’re shifting the focus of the festival back onto young people. They, after all, are the mad scientists of the future.

In addition to our mammoth Bright Sparks weekend (11 & 12 Feb) we’re putting on another jam-packed programme of shows, workshops and activities over the February half-term. Curious minds of all ages will be inspired by what we’ve got coming up during the week. As always, the emphasis is on serious fun – the kind of learning that doesn’t feel like work.

You and your kids will learn loads about technology, medicine and maths without even knowing it. We’re taking the fear out of quantum theory, while putting the LOL into encephalology.

This year’s Brighton Science Festival takes a slightly different format to previous years. We have concentrated on children’s activities during the February half-term week, while our usual adult programme will come later in the year – perhaps alongside the British Science Festival which comes to Brighton in 2017.

Festival Director, Richard Robinson, was formerly an actor, puppeteer and a founder member of TV satire show ‘Spitting Image’. He has also written nearly 20 books on science, including the best-selling ‘Why The Toast Always Lands Butter- Side Down.’

Brighton Science Festival began in 2005 to encourage curiosity in youngsters. Richard Robinson explains: “Young people love to explore, experiment and create. They don’t mind making mistakes along the way. But the school curriculum doesn’t leave time for mistakes. They have to get the right version in their books straight away, ready to move on to the next topic. There is no room for the spirit of discovery. Secondly, their parents don’t join in. So our family fun days are there for both parents and their children to play, experiment, discover and share the experience.”

Festival highlights include:

MYSTERY AT FRANKENSTEIN CASTLE (15 – 17 Feb) – leave the edge of your seat and step into a unique immersive theatre experience. You are in an abandoned lab, with a storm brewing and a monster to bring to life. This is theatre that you help create. Solve puzzles. Do experiments. Do you have what it takes to give the monster the spark of life?

WHEN MAGIC AND SCIENCE COLLIDE (18 Feb) – magic and science collide, as Oliver Meech astounds you with amazing tricks, and then unveils the scintillating science that makes them work. It’s a comedy magic show for the QI generation.

ENSONGLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE (18 Feb) – an alphabetical and musical journey through science. We discover how octopuses smell, how to make one twin age faster than the other, how everything began and eventually how everything will end. John Hinton sings like a lark (and probably about one) and dances like a gazelle. Expect the unexpected – but expect it to rhyme.

Full details @ BrightonScience.com