On Saturday, 2 October, we started building the Rawa Scienceville, an outdoor infrastructure of the 5th Silesian Science Festival KATOWICE, led and organised by the University of Silesia.
This year’s edition of the Science Festival is special – the Festival will take place by the Rawa river boulevards – it stretches from the Market Square in Katowice to the end of ul. prof. Waleriana Pańki with the area of the Katowice campus of the University of Silesia, the Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library (CINiBA). Please check the map of the Festival area.
This edition is a great organisational challenge for the University. Arranging and adapting such an extensive area will significantly affect the traffic organisation on our campus and its vicinity, including the unavailability of some car parks.
We are aware that the temporary unavailability of some car park spaces may be inconvenient for employees, PhD students and students. However, we ask you for your understanding and faith that temporary changes on the campus will favour further plans for the development of the University’s infrastructure (including the creation of a science zone in Katowice). For the duration of the Festival, we made efforts to introduce alternative solutions and enable our employees to use city car parks.
Partial closure of car park spaces within the main campus of the University of Silesia will be implemented in stages, from 2 to 13 October 2021. The exclusion will start at 6:00 a.m. on a designated day, unless different hours appear in the schedule below. According to the schedule:
- 2 October (Saturday) – part of the car park at CINIBA will be closed (part of the car park closer to the building, on the right side facing south, i.e. towards Rawa river). These car park spaces will be available again no later than 13 October (Wednesday) at 3 p.m.
- 4 October (Monday) – the car park at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at ul. Bankowa 9. These car park spaces will be available again no later than 12 October (Tuesday) at 3 p.m.
- 5 October (Tuesday) – part of the car park behind the Rector’s Office by the swimming pool (the so-called pitch) will be closed; These car park spaces will be available again no later than 12 October (Tuesday) at 3 p.m.
- 7 October (Thursday) – car park spaces at ul. prof. Waleriana Pańki. These car park spaces will be available again no later than 12 October (Tuesday) at 12 noon.
- 8 October (Friday) – the second part of the car park at CINIBA will be closed (part of the car park further from the building, on the left side facing south, i.e. towards the Rawa river). These car park spaces will be available again no later than 13 October (Wednesday) at 3 p.m.
- 8 October (Friday) – the car park behind the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia will be closed (from 3 p.m.) These car park spaces will be available again no later than 11 October (Monday) at 3 p.m.
- 9 October (Saturday) – the following car park spaces will be closed: at ul. Moniuszki from the intersection with ul. Bankowa to ul. Szkolna, and at ul. Bankowa from ul. Uniwersytecka to the intersection with ul. Chełkowskiego
- 9 October (Saturday) – on the first day of the Festival, car park spaces in the area around the Rector’s Office of the University of Silesia will be closed, including: car park spaces in the immediate vicinity of the building at ul. Bankowa 12a, as well as places between ul. Bankowa 12a and ul. Uniwersytecka 4 and at ul. Chełkowskiego along its entire length. These car park spaces will be available again no later than 11 October (Monday) at 6 a.m.
- 9 October (Saturday) – the car parks at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Silesia (from the entrance, facing CINIBA), the underground car park of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia and the underground car park of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School will also be closed. These car park spaces will be available again no later than 11 October (Monday) at 6 a.m.
The schedule may be subject to slight changes, which will result from the process of building the outdoor infrastructure of the Festival. Due to the scale of the inconveniences, subcontractors responsible for the preparation of the festival area will make every effort to shorten the time of taking up the space.
At the same time, we would like to draw attention to the importance of the event, in which you are so willing to actively participate and thanks to which the University of Silesia in a relatively short time increased its international visibility, which will result in, among others, the presence of the University at EXPO 2020 in Dubai, as well as the possibility of receiving the title of the European City of Science 2024 together with the City of Katowice.
We hope that we will meet together on 10 October at the Festival to spend time together after an exceptionally long break, learn about our scientific research and teaching achievements as well as take advantage of cultural attractions. This day of the Festival will end with Artur Andrus concert on the Rawa Valley Stage, located by CINIBA – it will be a unique opportunity for a positive start of the academic year.
During the unavailability of car park spaces, we encourage you to use the car parks provided by the Katowice City Hall in, among others, Strefa Kultury (Culture Zone) – near the International Congress Centre and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. At the same time, we also recommend using free car parks at the transfer centres in Katowice (in Brynów, Ligota and Zawodzie).
In order to minimise the inconveniences related to the unavailability of car parks near the campus, the Katowice City Hall has provided us with a temporary car park in Strefa Kultury (Culture Zone) near the NOSPR (Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra). The car park will be available from Thursday, 7 October on – it will be a designated area with access control.
From 7 October, the organisation of traffic around the Katowice campus will change as well. The planned changes include:
- 7–12 October, 2021 – no parking on ul. W. Pańki;
- 8–11 October, 2021 – no entry into ul. W. Pańki;
- 9–11 October, 2021 – no parking on ul. Moniuszki (the part from the intersection with ul. Bankowa to the intersection with ul. Szkolna);
- 9–11 October, 2021 – no parking on ul. Teatralna;
- 10.10.2021 – closure for traffic at ul. Bankowa and Szkolna (except for ZTM buses).
The Festival will be held on 9-15 October:
- The opening gala will take place on 9 October (from 6.30 p.m.);
- 10 October (the day of live attractions) – open-air Scienceville (9.30 a.m. – 9 p.m.)
- 10-15 October – online programme (9 a.m. – 9 p.m.)
The detailed programme is available here: www.slaskifestiwalnauki.pl/program
Location of car parks within the Katowice campus
photo: Unsplash