15 Photos Capture the Spectacular Events of Beakerhead 2015

Art, science, and engineering converged at the third annual Beakerhead in Calgary last week. The five-day event ran from September 16-20, and included more than 160 collaborators and 60 public events. During this exciting time, the city became a cultural hotspot, where some of the brightest minds in the world met to share their biggest ideas.

On its website, the event explains: “Sometimes the worlds of science and engineering, or art, can seem out of reach. Beakerhead is for the artist and engineer in everyone. It creates fully inclusive experiences that encourage children, families, artists and engineers to see, touch, create and learn.” At its core, Beakerhead represents a very noble cause.

Visitors of all ages are encouraged to get involved and be hands on. “Find yourself immersed in engineered art, international ingenuity competitions, public performances, community challenges, backyard-built contraptions, and creations of your own making. You will learn something new, that is Beakerhead’s guarantee.”

In addition to the riveting talks and fun science competitions, you can always count on artists to show up in full force. The main event is called Beakernight, and includes some outrageous outdoor installations like a rocket ship crane ride, and a fire-spewing hippo vehicle. And to mix things up even further, they brought in “science advocate” and rapper GZA of the Grammy-nominated Wu-Tang Clan, alongside Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques.

Here are 15 of our favorite photos from Beakerhead in 2015. Check out their Flickr stream to see even more.

Photo credit: Kelly Hofer