Oxford Science and Ideas Festival
Oxford Science Science and Ideas Festival, also known as IF Oxford, is an annual science festival held in October in Oxford, England, and produced by an independent charity, the Oxfordshire Science Festival. The festival runs annually for four weeks, involving over 100 events across Oxford and surrounding communities. The festival dates back to 1992, when the Oxford Trust, a charitable organisation founded by Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood put on a "Festival of Science" from 13 to 18 January. The first event was hosted at Oxford's Old Fire Station arts centre. The festival became an annual event, and in its first ten years ran events at 48 venues, and attracted more than 75,000 visitors. For many years, the festival operated under the name 'Oxfordshire Science Festival', and in 2018 was renamed 'IF Oxford'. The 29th festival, in 2020, was run entirely online due to the COVID pandemic. It returned to an in-person festival in 2021. Over the years the festival has expanded both in terms of the number of venues, and duration. In the early 2000s, the festival ran in January and February, and later, in June. It has run annually in October since 2018. Each year, the programme features hands-on activities, exhibitions, talks and tours, with an emphasis on making science accessible to all, on exploring the intersections between art, creativity and science, and a diverse programme with many events run in outlying communities of the city of Oxford. The 2024 science and ideas festival is scheduled to run across Oxford from 6 October to 3 November. The festival's current director, since 2017, is Dane Comerford. Renée Watson was festival manager from 2008 to 2017. IF Oxford Official website