The 5th edition of the Silesian Science Festival KATOWICE will be different than the previous ones, as befits the first jubilee. It will last longer, from 9 to 15 October 2021, and this time, the Festival’s audience will be invited on location as well. On 10 October (Sunday), the Festival will take place at the Rawa river boulevards, their vicinity, and Katowice Market Square.
It is the very Rawa River, which will become the main axis of the Festival space, which will stretch from the Katowice Market Square, through ul. Teatralna, the Rawa river boulevards, the area of the University of Silesia campus, to the building of the Faculty of Law and Administration.
Along with the city’s authorities, we believe that the new concept for the Festival is a great opportunity to initiate a process of image and urban changes, thanks to which the Rawa river will become an important and valuable for Katowice inhabitants element of the urban space.
The 5th ŚFN Katowice opening gala will take place on 9 October (Saturday) by the Rawa river. The 5th ŚFN Katowice opening gala will take place on 9 October (Saturday) by the Rawa river; whereas on 11-15 October, the Festival will move into Internet space with each day dedicated to a different field of knowledge.
On 10 October, the programme will feature dozens of lectures (some speakers will perform online), workshops, exhibition booths, exhibitions, concerts, and meetings with special guests from Poland and abroad. The participants will have at their disposal:
- four special zones – Stanisław Lem Special Zone (near of which you can also find the mobile Silesian Planetarium in Chorzów), the City and the Rawa River Water Zone, Family Zone (with a playground, sandpit, and performances for children), and Accessibility Zone;
- twelve stages – the Rawa Valley Stage, which will be the Main Stage of the Festival (next to the CINiBA), River Sound Stage (located next to ul. Teatralna), and water zone (located near the Monument to the Scouts of September at the Katowice Square Market); moreover, there will be three stages within the special zones (Stanisław Lem stage, Family stage, and Water stage stretched throughout the Rawa river), five stages within the fields of knowledge, and the COVID Impact stage, to which you can get through the Remote Living Path (it will concern the pandemic impact on our lives);
- six fields of knowledge – humanities and social sciences, exact sciences, technology, natural sciences, medicine and health, and art; each field will be prepared individually featuring tents with stages and exhibition booths, and the exhibitions at the field of knowledge in arts can be seen both in the building at ul. Uniwersytecka 4 (the new headquarter of the Faculty of Humanities) and in the CINiBA (common library of the University of Silesia and the University of Economics directly next to the Rawa Valley Stage);
- two Science Stations (under the patronage of the Noble Prize winners Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Maria Goeppert-Mayer) – within their framework you can talk with interesting figures from the world of science (but not only) in a more cosy atmosphere and listen to their lectures;
- “Tree of Tales” – a space located at the promenade at ul. Bankowa. The space will feature readings of fragments of Stanisław Lem books as well as selected lectures and meetings with special guests;
- two workshop areas (comprising of five air-inflated tents), where various workshops will be carried out throughout the entire day – one area will be located between the Faculty of Social Sciences and CINiBA, whereas the other between the CINiBA and the Faculty of Law and Administration.
The ŚFN area will be complemented by:
- curiosities (including a Fakir’s bed of nails and a hoovercraft – hovercraft made from a hoover) located at ul. Teatralna (the street leading from the Square Market to ul. Szkolna);
- two Food Zones – one next to the new headquarters of the Faculty of Humanities at ul. Uniwersytecka 4 (at the parking available from ul. Moniuszki and u. Chełkowskiego) and the other one next to the CINiBA near the Silesia Star building;
- two Chillout Zones – one located at Rawa river near ul. Teatralna and the River Sound Stage (made of platforms with deckchairs, pouffes, and roofed wicker beach chairs in order to show how to spend time at Rawa river), and the other will be the reading zone located at Rawa river bank by the motor vehicle diagnostic station (with available books, information points about the universities participating in the ŚFN organisation, chillout furniture, coffee, and film screenings);
- OFF Science Zone, located at the garages near the Institute of Chemistry, will feature the projects of the Review of Garage Inventions.
In order that the audience can efficiently move throughout the vast Festival space, we will build an additional temporary bridge at the Rawa river (by the street between the Faculty of Social Sciences and CINiBA), and free electric carts will shuttle throughout the ŚFN area. At the parking by the Faculty of Law and Administration there will be two buses: the first will be a mobile vaccination point, whereas the other a mobile blood donation point. Close to that the hot air balloon of the University Laboratory for Atmosphere Control (ULAC) will be located.
The participants will have eight information points scattered throughout the entire Festival space at their disposal:
- at ul. Teatralna,
- at the Square Market by the former seat of the Silesian Museum;
- at ul. Moniuszki near ul. Szkolna;
- at ul. Uniwersytecka;
- near the Rawa Valley Stage by CINiBA;
- at ul. Bankowa from ul. Warszawska;
- at ul. Bankowa from ul. Rozdzieńskiego;
- at ul. Pańki from the side of ul. Dudy Gracza.
At the information points, you can: learn anything about the Festival, ask for directions, exchange the free entry pass you received during the registration online for a band letting you enter the Festival site and the individual special zones and Festival areas, fill the statement on health state on the base of which you can receive the band.
Detailed information about the particular elements of the Festival space (including schedules of particular stages or lists of exhibition booths) will be regularly published on the ŚFN KATOWICE website.
A fragment of the University of Silesia campus in Katowice. Photo by Julia Agnieszka Szymala