Title photo: Why Sci Variety Show (2025). Photograph by Romulo Ueda
It’s not every day somebody gets to snap on some gloves and examine a preserved human brain, but this and plenty of equally fascinating discoveries are a common sight at the Wisconsin Science Festival. The festival, October 15 to 25 throughout the state this year, is a dizzying array of performances, demonstrations, projects, and events that stimulate and celebrate curiosity.
Though some events are aimed at kids and families, most of the audience is between 30 and 65 years old. The events aren’t only for people nostalgic for that old high school Bunsen burner; many are designed for the friend who doesn’t think of themselves as a science person. Everyone walks away with a richer understanding of the importance of science and how it shows up all around them.
The festival began in 2011 when several UW and community arts leaders envisioned an event centering science, technology, and creativity. Similar festivals were already happening in Europe, and Madison leaders wanted to create an event that amplified science and art together. They started with a few events in the Discovery Building and around the city of Madison and grew to involve 800-plus events throughout the entire state. Last year, the festival hosted events in 56 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, and organizers hope to one day hold events in every county.
The statewide expansion happened organically. Early in the festival’s life, a Bayfield teacher who’d already been hosting his own science event suggested to organizers that he host his event during the Wisconsin Science Festival, and a model was born. The festival directors work to support prospective organizers throughout the state in creating and publicizing the events that work for their locales.
Photograph by Romulo Ueda
The goal, says festival director Sam Mulrooney, isn’t actually to host a huge gathering, but to use science and art to foster connection at the local level. “That’s a big component of what we do,” she says. “The business that we’re in is creating events, but it’s ultimately relationship building. Through the lens of communicating science and engaging the public with science, it’s really about making connections in the community.” They want to connect the communities with like-minded individuals who also explore science, facilitate the community meeting researchers, and help the community meet each other.
Along with participating in hands-on demos involving human brains or otherwise, audiences can also show up and have fun at shows that find new ways to combine humor, performance, and science. Sci-prov, for instance, blends science talks with improv comedy, and the Why Sci Variety Show, which debuted last year and was produced in partnership with the UW–Madison Division of the Arts, features dance, physics, and expert talks.
Such partnerships are crucial in reaching new people and expanding the content. For the past several years, the festival has showcased its flagship event, Science on the Square. This partnership with the Madison Night Market fills State Street and surrounds the Capitol with demonstrations, music, and science-related pub talks where people can learn about anything from astronomy to chemistry to radiation in hands-on ways. For the second year in a row, this fusion event will kick off the statewide festival. The science festival also overlaps and collaborates with the Wisconsin Book Festival, highlighting dozens of science-related books, authors, and interviews.
Accessibility is a core tenet. One of the most important initiatives is Science in a Bag: free drawstring backpacks packed with science kits and activities. “We started that during the pandemic just as a way to keep the statewide impact we were going for,” says Sam. “But it’s a huge anchor part of our festival now.”
Photograph by Romulo Ueda
Science in a Bag helps the festival spread its footprint each year, allowing the bags to reach places in the state where the festival might not have as much presence. Coordinated in collaboration with festival-producing partner Morgridge Institute for Research, the bags are free to both the libraries that distribute them and the people who receive them. Each year, the backpacks are spoken for almost as soon as the applications open, and it’s common for libraries to distribute all their bags within hours.
An annual festival feature unites the offerings and provides an optional creative prompt for organizers. Past features have included rock and roll (or music, motion, and geology), agriculture, fungi, glass, and time. The 2026 feature is us: the science of who human beings are, from the wonders of the brain and body to humanity’s place in the universe.
Festival organizers still nurture plenty of new dreams for the future. Francesca Long, the festival’s operations manager, would love to create a traveling community art piece that tells a science story people can add to as it travels around Wisconsin. “We’d like to have an artistic piece that shows how people have engaged with the festival throughout the state,” Francesca says. She imagines a statewide collaboration that could live on long after the festival has concluded. Sam shares the vision of one story that unites the inhabitants of the entire state. “It’s pretty powerful when community members can see something that’s been created by people throughout the state. It helps highlight the commonalities that connect us as humans.”
The ideal event, Sam says, is anything that sparks continued curiosity or leaves lingering connection wherever the event took place, citing the expo in Eau Claire where hosts gathered yoga studios and tea shops alongside medical information and demos, shared it on the local news, and made the whole event part of the science festival. The science festival inspired them to connect with others, find out about the science of their own community, then share that knowledge more broadly.
Photograph by Romulo Ueda
Francesca concurs, saying, “I love when we meet with someone who thinks what they do couldn’t possibly fit in with the festival, and then either we help pick out existing aspects of their programming that would definitely fit in or just help people see that what they do is science worthy or science-festival worthy. That’s always really exciting.”
Prospective hosts can submit an event at wisconsinsciencefest.org/host. The organizers offer guidance before an event is even submitted in the form of an optional survey that allows potential hosts to consider their ideal goals, audience, and format and the types of support they would benefit from most. Festival-goers can find events by location, topic, age range, and more at wisconsinsciencefest.org/find-an-event.