Spreading Across the Cork Cosmos, SpaceFest 2024 Gets Set to Launch

SpaceFest, run by Greywood Arts in partnership with the National Space Centre (NSC) and supported by Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland, celebrates Science Week by combining science and the arts to explore the cosmos. This year’s festival offers a week-long programme for adults, teens, and families, running from Sunday, 10 November through Sunday, 17 November. Attendees can look forward to experiments, exhibitions, tours, classes, workshops, and more, all accessible at https://spacefest.ie.

Now in its fourth year, SpaceFest is expanding beyond its previous home base at the NSC. 2024 events will be held across Cork City at venues including Marina Market, UCC, Blackrock Castle Observatory, and Cork County Cricket Club. In East Cork, activities will take place at Greywood Arts (Killeagh) and the National Space Centre (Midleton).

Some of the dozen SpaceFest events around Cork City and County include:

—  Space Cocktails Speakeasy (€20): What does a nebula taste like in liquid form? What cocktail could we make with ingredients found on Mars? Dr Alfredo Carpineti, also known as the Astroholic, will lead an Astro-inspired mixology workshop with hands-on demonstrations. Ballymaloe-trained chef, and Food Truck alumni Niamh Hergarty will pair tastings inspired by the first fermentation on the ISS.

—  It’s About Time: Distant Galaxies Poetry Workshop (Free): Participants will have the opportunity to tour UCC’s historic 1880 Crawford Observatory in a private visit led by UCC Head of Astrophysics Dr Paul Callanan. A 90-minute workshop led by poet Kerri Sonnenberg will follow, pondering how images of distant galaxies from billions of years in the past, their light just now reaching us, causes us to reconsider what we think we know about time.

—  Stellar Perspectives at Solaris: (Free): An astrophotography exhibit featuring images of the heavens and night skies over Ireland. The nine photographers whose work is displayed represent members of photography, astrophotography and astronomy clubs from across the country as well as independent photographers.

The week culminates with Cosmic Debris (Free), an immersive multimedia exhibition that challenges the audience to rethink our place in the cosmos and the impact we leave behind. Held at the National Space Centre beneath the site’s iconic 32-metre Big Dish, tickets include a tour of the facility, which only opens to the public for this annual event.

Greywood Artists-in-residence Nicholas Carn (UK), Kerry Guinan (IE) and artist/engineer Luisa Charles (UK) present collaboratively devised kinetic, levitating sculptures and moving images in response to the issue of space debris. Selected from over 100 applicants, these three internationally exhibited artists engaged with both Blackrock Castle Observatory and UCC’s Crawford Observatory during their residency at Greywood Arts in Killeagh in order to bring hard science into the creative interpretation on exhibit.

Big Listening and Radio Silence, featuring sound, sculptures and listening devices created by nearly 150 young participants from Greywood’s space-themed STEAM programme, will also be on display for visitors to see and interact with.

As one of a number of accessibility initiatives rolled into the Festival, a special session for Deaf and Hard of Hearing visitors facilitated by ISL interpreter Keira O’Connell is available for booking online with the rest of the week-long programme at https://spacefest.ie.