Let's talk about Beakerhead

[surferguy]

This festival look pretty cool. I haven't had a chance to check it out in the past years. I am planning to go tonight but I don't know what to check out.

Suggestions?

Let's talk about Beakerhead.

[Canehdianman]

sure.

What's a beakerhead?

[Locke]

[surferguy]

^^^^I knew that one was coming

beakerhead is a science and art festival running across the city right now.

http://www.beakerhead.ca

[nik-]

Even going through the trouble of making a website. You're really pulling out all the stops to make us believe in your made up festival surferguy.

I, for one, am not buying it.

[Looch City]

All hail Cthulhu.

[Sliver]

This won't be a popular opinion, I'm sure, but it's terrible. I've been two years in a row and refuse to go this year. Big waste of time with boring crap everywhere and long lines for anything. Bad organization. Bad events. Lame, lame, lame.

Last year was the worst on that road they had closed along side the elevated LRT track. Food truck lines were too long and there was literally nothing to do for the 100,000 or so people that were gathered on the street.

[peter12]

Agreed. It is actually very awful.

[worth]

I'd recommend biking down to the riverwalk or to stephen ave and seeing what's up. By bike allows you to easily hit other installations if it's too busy at a particular location as Sliver has indicated. Beautiful night ahead, there will be lots of people out.

[calgarygeologist]

I've gone the last two years with the family but won't be going to anything this year. The first year was great because not many people knew about it. Last year was brutal. I think some lectures food and drink events could be cool but I am too poor to buy tickets.

[Table 5]

I liked the giant glowing bunnies.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I liked the giant glowing bunnies.

For some reason I read this in Brick Tamland's voice.

[Ashasx]

I went last year and there really wasn't anything for me to do. Wasn't worth the hassle trying to find a place to park.

[Muta]

I'm volunteering at Beakerhead... second year in a row. The big event is happening on Saturday night in Bridgeland, so if you have nothing to do, come on down. Most stuff is free, so really it only costs you your time.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Muta

I'm volunteering at Beakerhead... second year in a row. The big event is happening on Saturday night in Bridgeland, so if you have nothing to do, come on down. Most stuff is free, so really it only costs you your time.

I found your scapegoat Sliver

[tete]

We're going to go check out the bunnies tonight just around sundown and I want to go down to the "dinosaur dig" at Fort Calgary tomorrow because my daughter is a dino freak right now. I've checked out the bottle maze and bottle lite brite at Eau Claire already. I've never been here for Beakerhead, I'm usually out of town this weekend, so I'm excited to go.

[Bigtime]

I met up with the wife and kids on Stephen avenue yesterday afternoon, from 4-6 they had all sorts of stuff set up (just a sampling below):

-Battling robots
-UofC School of Medicine had actual human brains on display, plus a pig one you could touch (with gloves)
-A big non-Newtonian fluid pool you could run across (kids loved this)
-Painting with milk based paints on picture frames (kids loved this)
-A giant hamster wheel bike
-Shark car cruising the avenue
-Some sort of electric/pedal bikes called Velometro
-The Makerbus
-Quickdraw Animation Society
-Petri dish bacteria painting
-Prosthetics and future designs

And lots of other stuff. The avenue was packed but lines were short for kids to check things out and get their hands dirty if they wanted too.

Today we are going to East Village to check out the installations there and in Inglewood and will also go up to the Ramsay rink for the Time Traveller's parade at 1pm. Not sure if we'll keep the kids up for Beakernight, but I think the Bridgeland location will be better than 10th avenue was last year.

Echoing what others have said, the best way to take it in is via bike. You can quickly get around to a lot of the installations. That's how we are doing it today.

[Peanut]

Did anyone make it to the big night event last night in Bridgeland? I saw them setting up in the late morning and it looked like it was going to be cool, sadly I wasn't able to actually go for the night portion.

We went to the big sandbox of ingenuity this morning at Fort Calgary. Kids had a blast.

I think Beakerhead is such a cool and unique festival. Count me in the group that loves it even if I only make it to a few events each year. I've just never seen anything like it before - proud to have something like this in Calgary for sure.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by Peanut

Did anyone make it to the big night event last night in Bridgeland? I saw them setting up in the late morning and it looked like it was going to be cool, sadly I wasn't able to actually go for the night portion.

We went to the big sandbox of ingenuity this morning at Fort Calgary. Kids had a blast.

I think Beakerhead is such a cool and unique festival. Count me in the group that loves it even if I only make it to a few events each year. I've just never seen anything like it before - proud to have something like this in Calgary for sure.

My wife & I hit up the Beakernight in Bridgeland there, I didn't go last year, but my wife did and said it was a much better experience this year. Seemed to have a larger space, less games/exhibits that required waiting in line.

For what it's worth it's a pretty cool event for Calgary overall, and it's great to see a large scale, mostly free event take over the city. But it's still a young event, and currently has a bit of a "rave party for kids" vibe to it. Which isn't a bad thing mind you, but overall it felt very much geared towards kids/families.

However if they keep going the way their going (multiple locations, easy to just come across & enjoy without a specific outing) I could see it growing into a premier event in this city... possibly eclipsing something like Folks Fest.

[Looch City]

Yeah I was there as well and thought it was really cool.

Favourite was on the stage with the DJ playing EDM and then these two guys on stilts, dressed in robot costumes show up. They start blasting the crowd with dry-ice cannons with flames shooting up behind them, all going to the beat of the music. Very well done!