SWANSEA: Science festival marks ten years with CBeebies stars, Harry Potter magic and the city’s own Secret Traitor

The Swansea Science Festival returns next month for its tenth year, with a two-day programme at the National Waterfront Museum on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October.

Hosted by Swansea University in partnership with the museum, the festival mixes free drop-in activities with ticketed shows, and organisers bill it as the largest science festival in Wales.

This year’s line-up leans into names younger visitors will recognise from the telly.

Grace Webb, star of the award-winning CBeebies programme Grace’s Amazing Machines, will take audiences into her electrical workshop to discover how green gadgets work.

YouTube creator and fellow CBeebies star Maddie Moate will lead an interactive journey into the machines and technology we use every day.

For the Halloween crowd, award-winning science communicator Jon Chase will explore the science behind the magical world of Harry Potter, while Cardiff science centre Techniquest shines a light on Wales’s contribution to discovery.

And on the eve of Halloween comes something for the grown-ups, with a proper local twist: Swansea’s own Fiona Hughes, series four’s first-ever Secret Traitor, comes home to unpick the science of deception, trust and human behaviour alongside Swansea University psychologist Dr Alex Jones.

She is joined by Amanda Collier, the retired police detective from the same series, whose secret career, revealed after her banishment, sparked the round-table row that ended Hughes’s game. Between a detective and a Secret Traitor, the Waterfront may be the worst room in Wales in which to tell a lie.

Elsewhere the programme runs from cutting-edge engineering and green technology to medical maggots and bath bombs, with free drop-in activities and interactive exhibits throughout the museum across both days.

The festival has been a fixture of the city’s autumn since 2016. Last year’s edition brought wildlife presenters Hamza Yassin and Lizzie Daly to the Waterfront, alongside the Royal Institution’s explosive live shows.

Professor Siwan Davies, Swansea University’s pro-vice-chancellor for research and innovation, said: “We are delighted to be celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Swansea Science Festival this autumn. Since we first launched in 2016, the festival has grown into a highlight of Swansea’s cultural calendar, inspiring people of all ages and showcasing the extraordinary ways science shapes our world.

“Alongside our partners at the National Waterfront Museum, we have put together a fantastic and diverse programme, ranging from groundbreaking research to engaging family shows. We look forward to welcoming the community to celebrate a decade of discovery, science and innovation.”

This year’s events are a mix of free and low-cost ticketed sessions.

Tickets and the full programme are available at swansea.ac.uk/swansea-science-festival.