A winter festival for curious adults
Smart, surprising, and seriously entertaining: Beaker Street Festival is bringing its signature mix of science, art, and connection back to Lutruwita/Tasmania this August.
Beaker Street Festival is Tasmania’s annual celebration of science and culture. This year, the Festival takes place 6 to 17 August, with a Nipaluna/Hobart hub as well as events around the state.
It’s also our 10th birthday, so expect an even bigger party than usual!
For two weeks, Beaker Street Festival brings scientists, artists, musicians, chefs, storytellers, adventurers, and audiences together for a program of talks, performances, field trips, workshops, food experiences, live music, nightlife, and large-scale public events.
It’s one of Australia’s most distinctive winter festivals: playful, thought-provoking, social, and deeply connected to Tasmania’s landscapes, creativity, and scientific culture.
Festival Highlights
The 2026 Beaker Street Festival lineup brings together a Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist, psychedelic researchers, Indigenous astronomers, forensic scientists, experimental artists, sex historians, game designers, and underground mushroom growers for two weeks of conversations and experiences unlike anything else in Australia.
Below are a handful of events that we’re especially excited about. There are loads more to choose from in the full program, so start planning your itinerary!
Murder on Beaker Street: The Science of True Crime
Join the A-team from Forensic Science Service Tasmania for a front-row seat to how criminal cases really come together.
A body is discovered. The scene is secured. The evidence starts to tell a story. Join the forensic experts from the Forensic Science Service Tasmania for a fascinating look at how real criminal investigations unfold, from crime scene collection and lab analysis to the cutting-edge genetic tools now helping solve decades-old cold cases.
SexTistics
A mother-daughter duo take a cheeky, data-driven deep dive into our modern sex lives.
“Kinky History” star Dr Esmé Louise James returns to Beaker Street, joined by mathematician mum Dr Susan James, for a revealing exploration of sex, relationships, and human behaviour. Drawing on survey responses from more than 11,000 people worldwide, SexTistics tackles everything from kinks to consent with humour, honesty, and plenty of myth-busting along the way.
Psychedelics Revisited
How once-taboo substances are reshaping mental health care.
After decades pushed underground by the War on Drugs, psychedelics are making a dramatic return to mainstream medicine. In this fascinating session, leading researchers and a participant from a recent clinical trial explore the science, promise, and lived experience behind psychedelic-assisted therapy, and what this emerging field could mean for the future of mental health.
Can’t look away: How our technology keeps us hooked
A behind-the-screen look at how tech companies manipulate us all.
Most of us spend hours each day generating attention, data, and profit for some of the richest tech companies on earth. In this eye-opening session, experts unpack the psychology, neuroscience, and manipulative design tricks that keep us glued to our screens, and explore what it might take to reclaim our attention from systems built to outsmart us.
Fermentation Masterclass
A full day of hands-on making, baking, and tasting at Launceston’s new FermentHQ
Spend a day at Tasmania’s new fermentation facility, FermentHQ, exploring the delicious science of microbes through hands-on workshops in cheese-making, sourdough, fermented vegetables, and cool-climate wine. Taste your way through the day, learn practical skills to use at home, and discover how fermentation transforms local produce. Lunch included.
Antarctic Connections Tasman Peninsula Tour
A Full-Day Experimental Expedition in Citizen Geoscience
Lutruwita/Tasmania wasn’t always an island. Join a full-day field trip along the spectacular Tasman Peninsula, exploring ancient Gondwanan landscapes through hands-on geology and citizen science. From the Tessellated Pavement to Tasman Arch and Waterfall Bay, you’ll learn to read the landscape using real field techniques while uncovering the powerful forces that shaped Tasmania’s coastline over millions of years.
Enchanted Slime Mould Forest
Sarah Lloyd OAM reveals a hidden world of tiny living jewels all around us.
For our 10th anniversary, we’re bringing back an expanded return of Sarah Lloyd’s much-loved 2018 slime mould exhibition. Discover the bizarre beauty of these ancient organisms through stunning photography, real preserved specimens, and microscopes revealing intricate hidden worlds, guided by one of Australia’s leading myxomycologists.
Krill Party at Hobartica
Dress to Krill for the Festival’s opening act
Get ready to krill out at this gloriously unhinged celebration of one of the ocean’s tiniest and most important creatures. Expect live music, zooplankton-inspired cocktails, glowing deep-sea projections, DIY costume stations, live Antarctic krill from the Australian Antarctic Division, and scientists on hand to reveal the fascinating world beneath the ice.
EXPANDING THE COSMOS AT MOUNT GNOMON
An evening of astronomy, culture, food, and music in one of NW Lutruwita/Tasmania’s most atmospheric settings
Escape to the dark skies of Mount Gnomon Farm for an unforgettable night of Indigenous astronomy, Moon missions, stargazing, food, and live music. Gather in the firelit barn with Wuradjuri astrophysicist Dr Kirsten Banks and astronomer Dr Martin George, feast on delicious local fare, then head outside beneath the stars for telescopes with the Astronomical Society of Tasmania.
When and where it happens
Beaker Street Festival runs from 6 to 17 August 2026 in Lutruwita / Tasmania. The majority of events take place in or near Nipaluna / Hobart.
The main program will unfold across two distinct weekends in Nipaluna / Hobart, with an Antarctic-inspired waterfront takeover (6 to 9 August), followed by a cross-disciplinary explosion of cutting-edge science (14 to 16 August).
These are surrounded by a statewide lineup of field trips, workshops, dining experiences, and nature adventures during the full Festival period, creating a great excuse to explore more of the state.
Key Dates >>
6-9 August
Hobartica, our Antarctic precinct on Hobart’s waterfront
14-16 August
Festival Epicentre including our Main Stage at Hobart City Hall, Roving Scientist Bar at the Hope & Anchor (Australia’s oldest pub), and TMAG After Dark at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
6-17 August
Field trips, workshops, dinners, and more around Tasmania (plus a few extra surprises popping up through the end of August)
Do I need to be “into science”?
Not at all. Most Beaker Street audience members are not scientists.
The Festival is designed for people who are curious about the world, enjoy learning new things, and like experiences that are a bit different from the usual festival offering. The program is created for adults, but there are a few family-friendly events as well.
People come to Beaker Street because it feels different. You can show up with friends for a fun night out, then accidentally leave thinking differently about the Universe, technology, nature, your own brain, or the future of humanity.
If you enjoy good storytelling, fascinating conversations, live events, food, nature, art, music, or clever people saying surprising things in pubs, you’ll feel very much at home.
A truly Tasmanian festival
Beaker Street Festival could only exist here.
Tasmania has an unusual concentration of scientists, artists, makers, environmentalists, and adventurous people packed into a small island at the edge of the world. Hobart is Australia’s gateway to Antarctica, surrounded by mountains, waterways, wilderness, and some of the clearest skies on Earth. It also boasts more scientists per capita than any other Australian city.
The Festival draws energy from all of that.
Beaker Street spills out into the city and the landscape itself. Scientists are waiting to mingle in pubs. Events unfold across the waterfront. Regional experiences take you into forests, coastlines, observatories, distilleries, farms, and dark sky locations across the state.
It feels local, atmospheric, and unmistakably Tasmanian.
WHAT IS BEAKER STREET FESTIVAL?
Beaker Street Festival is a two-week celebration of science, art, and connection in Lutruwita/Tasmania. Each August, we bring together curious adults for immersive experiences, talks, performances, and adventures.
Across a packed program of talks, field trips, workshops, dining experiences, performances, exhibitions, live music, and wildly unexpected encounters, you’ll meet scientists, artists, and thinkers doing extraordinary things, and connect with them in ways you rarely can anywhere else.
WHEN DOES BEAKER STREET FESTIVAL 2026 TAKE PLACE?
Beaker Street Festival runs 6–17 August 2026, with Nipaluna/Hobart hub events happening across two weekends and many mid-week experiences.
WHERE DOES BEAKER STREET FESTIVAL TAKE PLACE?
The main Nipaluna/Hobart hub splits across two precincts: the Hobartica precinct on the city’s waterfront for the first weekend, and the Epicentre precinct around Hobart City Hall for the second. Regional events extend to towns including Triabunna, Ross, Eagle Hawk Neck, Richmond, Penguin, Launceston, Burnie, and the Styx Valley.
HOW MUCH DO BEAKER STREET FESTIVAL TICKETS COST?
Science is for everyone – many Beaker Street events are free to enter. Most ticketed events at Hobart City Hall cost about $35 for adults or $25 for concession patrons. Premium and small-group dining and workshop experiences go higher to cover the delivery costs.
WHEN DO BEAKER STREET 2026 TICKETS GO ON SALE?
Beaker Street Festival tickets go on sale 28 May 2026. Plan your festival now and grab tickets before they sell out.
WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT?
If the word “science festival” makes you picture school excursions or academic conferences, you can relax.
Beaker Street is built around experiences.
Some events are huge nights out in historic theatres and city halls. Others happen in pubs, museums, saunas, observatories, restaurants, forests, or around fire pits. Some are thoughtful and immersive. Some are hilarious. All are genuinely mind-expanding.
The event types include big headline talks and debates, live performances, food and drink events, nature tours, workshops and masterclasses, exhibitions, live music, and drop-in free public events.
There are events for deep science nerds, casual culture lovers, adventurous travellers, and people who just want an excellent winter night out.
WHO MAKES THE FESTIVAL POSSIBLE?
Beaker Street Festival is presented by Beaker Street, an independent charitable cultural organisation building community through scientific understanding in Lutruwita/Tasmania.
Beaker Street Festival’s major partners for 2026 are the Tasmanian Government through Events Tasmania, City of Hobart, the Australian Government as part of National Science Week, and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
We’re also supported by many other brilliant businesses and individuals, plus an incredible crew, 80+ volunteers, and 100+ early to mid career scientists. Visit our Partners page to learn more.
Welcome to The Second Act
An introduction to our 2026 Festival Theme from Beaker Street founder and CEO/Creative Director, Dr Margo Adler.
Ten years ago, I had a vision for what a great night out could be: Microscopes on bar tables, fascinating specimens and scientific oddities, short talks kicking off friendly debate, plus live music, drinks, dancing, and scientists sparking mind-expanding conversations in every corner.
In short, a nerd fest.
I never could have imagined how strongly the vision would resonate. From that first opening night, crowds flooded in. A decade on, Beaker Street Festival now draws thousands of visitors from across the country (and beyond) each August, bringing big ideas, deep conversations, and unexpected experiences across Lutruwita/Tasmania.
Ten years in, we’re not slowing down. We’re experimenting with new formats, inviting in new audiences, making more space for voices you don’t hear often enough, and continuing to blur the lines between science, culture, and a great night out.
We’re marking Beaker Street Festival’s 10th anniversary with our 2026 theme “The Second Act.” At a time of reckoning and reinvention for humanity, the theme is a provocation to interrogate our assumptions, invite debate, ask harder questions, and reaffirm our connection with each other, in real life. Oh, and maybe have some fun too.
Thanks for your love over the past decade. Join us in Nipaluna/Hobart and beyond, 6–17 August 2026, and be part of what comes next.
Margo
Beaker Street Festival Founder and Creative Director
GET INVOLVED. We’re always looking for fine folks to support our work and help create the magic.
Explore Past Programs
Wild Ideas, Curious Adventures, and Nerds. Beaker Street Festival 2025 took a welcome detour into new territory, discovering better ways to live and smarter ways to die, and offering up plenty of opportunities to party (including cameos from entertainment powerhouses Myf Warhurst, Dr Emse Louise James, and Michael Hing). Hobartica also went next-level, with Antarctic rituals, Celestial Concerts, a Cultural Embassy and nightly talks and jazz.
Introducing: Hobartica! Take a deep-dive into Antarctica, without leaving a trace. Including Polar Plunge pools, Finnish Sauna Tents, Antarctic audioscapes, and loads of Antarcticans to answer all your coldest questions. Plus, a futuristic mashup of space, AI, food and wellness trends, with a healthy dose of nature excursions and an east coast retreat.
Psychedelics, Menopause, and Tim Flannery were part of our 2023 Featured Speaker Sessions at Hobart’s Theatre Royal Studio Theatre, with Fungi Expeditions, Bat Tours, and Museum Vaults included in our Field Trips – the best way to experience Tasmania’s hidden secrets and wild places. Seaweed and Vaginas were on the menu at Mona, and our Dark Sky Retreat at Spring Bay Mill was an unforgettable exhale.
Is science really for everyone? In 2022 we took at deep dive into the cultural complexities of science, with discussions from the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, the Deaf community, and a musical exposé expressing the wishes of the dead. We also went north, with events exploring the science of stadiums, sparkling wine, and sauerkraut.
