University of Manchester Community Festival

University of Manchester Community Festival at University Place, Manchester, 15 June 2019, free entry - Visit now

The University of Manchester’s free Community Festival is always a sure bet for a great day out.  A top-notch combination of discovery, ideas, knowledge … and riotous fun.

In many fields such as science, medicine and the arts, the University’s progressive principles have led to world-changing discovery and are integral to Manchester’s history as the birthplace of new ideas.

With some great activities for all the family, this annual festival is a chance to peek behind the scenes, get involved with some pioneering work first hand and have many high jinks while you are at it.

This year you can take a walk on some custard to see if you sink or can make it to the other side. Discover more about amazing liquids and the reasons that some become solid with pressure.

Continue the intrigue around sticky substances with “Team Mucus” and find out how this natural slime is the body’s great defense.

Make your own 3D models with experts from the Digital Fabrication Centre, who use printing for research. Play with 3D doodle pens and see how different 3D printers work to create objects. Take part in The Flash Bang Show – a live, noisy, colour changing chemistry demonstration

A top-notch combination of discovery, ideas, knowledge … and riotous fun.

Future leaders will love the chance to be in charge of the world in an interactive experience to see if you could end poverty and make decisions to keep the world’s population safe and healthy.

Join a Heritage Tour to adventure around some of the University’s incredible neo-gothic spaces and visit the sites where Ernest Rutherford ‘split the atom’ and Alan Turing helped lay the foundations of modern computing. Discover more about defining moments of history in Manchester with the team from the John Rylands Library as they mark the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre this summer.

Sleuths meanwhile, should head for the Secret History of the Manchester Bee sessions. Discover more about the story behind the Manchester Bee and how to spot signs of secret societies on Manchester’s buildings.

Mini medics will love an interactive sensory experience exploring the hidden world of hearing and the science of the ear.

We love that, through such hands-on discovery, kids of all ages can explore the world-leading research of England’s first civic university on their own terms. Progressive indeed.