8 epic reasons to experience Beaker Street Festival in 2024

It’s a rite of passage for anyone visiting Antarctica to brave the cold with a polar plunge. Beaker Street Festival is bringing this freezing ‘hot trend’ straight to Hobart waterfront, aka Australia’s Gateway to Antarctica, so you too can freeze in the name of science – just like our Antarctic mates 3,800 kilometres over the Southern Ocean. As your reward for taking the plunge at ‘Hobartica’, you’ll get 55 minutes to defrost in a steamy, wood-fired Finnish tent sauna and chat with actual Antarcticans about everyday life at the Southern Pole. You can book a whole tent sauna for yourself or stick with an individual spot. 

A scientist walks into a bar… 150 of them, in this case. Back by popular demand, Beaker Street’s Roving Scientist Bar is taking over Hope and Anchor – Australia’s oldest continuously licensed pub – for two big nights. Grab a pint and get ready for speed dating, science style, where you can learn about everything from hypodermic insect genitalia to glow-in-the-dark marsupials. There will also be live accordion tunes, games with prizes, pub snacks, microscopes on every table and even the occasional taxidermy demonstration. Sounds like a test of how well you can hold your food and drinks down.

If the hills are alive in Austria, then the skies are alive in Tasmania. There’s no better time or place to witness the wonders of our gloriously dark sky than on a long winter night at Frogmore Creek Coal Valley. Start your evening with an optional tour of the Mount Pleasant Radio Telescope Observatory, then head down the road to Frogmore Creek winery for a beautiful candle-lit dinner, featuring talks by two Australian astronomic legends: Professor Alan Duffy and Dr Kirsten Banks. Don’t forget to look up and marvel at the celestial show above.

Trust us, you don’t need to be a math or science whiz to be blown away by Beaker Street Festival’s main stage shows.  On August 10, Australia’s beloved science nerd, Adam Spencer, will perform his first-ever Tasmanian math show, Numb and Number. And why stop there? Back it up by securing tickets to Dr Karl’s all-new Periodic Table show, which blends time, space and amazing stories from eons ago.

You can enjoy the best of the fest without spending a cent, thanks to Beaker Street’s many free events and exhibitions. The Tasmania Museum and Gallery is the heart of the festival’s free program, featuring After Dark sessions where you can explore the late-night galleries and exhibitions. Highlights include the 8th annual Beaker Street Science Photography Prize and Through Our Eyes by the Antarctic Women’s Network. You can also drop into the Bond Store basement for casual talks with the Young Tassie Scientists and maybe even catch a science open mic night.

Reality check: in just over 25 years, it’ll be 2050. Flying cars, underwater tunnels, robot dogs – who knows what the world will look like? Hobart’s most innovative chefs, including MONA's Vince Trim, are taking a stab at what Australia’s food scene might taste like in 2050, with a series of Future Forward dining experiences. Held in top restaurants and bars around the city, these dinners will include a 2050-inspired multi-course menu, accompanied by climate-friendly wines and the latest alcohol alternatives. But it’s not just about the food. Chefs, producers, agri-scientists, Indigenous knowledge holders and backyard farmers will also dish out fun facts about food production, preparation and consumption.

When we say this experience is lit, we mean it. Join Dr Lisa Gershwin on a fascinating after-dark tour along the Hobart Rivulet, where you’ll discover the secret glowing lives of our native flora and fauna. We’re talking pink-glowing possums, green-glowing wallabies, blue-glowing sugar gliders, plus technicolour owls, flowers and fungi. Trust us, this is something you have to see to believe.

This next workshop is for everyone who breathes… so, pretty much everyone except parasitic blobs. You’ll want to take a deep breath before the workshop begins because things are about to get heated. Scientist and wellness teacher Dr Rebecca Chabot will guide you through dynamic breathing exercises, including a taste of the holotropic breathing technique that mirrors the feeling of taking psychedelics. Immediately following the one-hour workshop, participants will enjoy exclusive access to the saunas and cold plunge pools.