Glastonbury Festival

Music fans engaged with freshwater fisheries research from the University of Southampton through an interactive ‘Bringing Research to Life’ Roadshow at Glastonbury Festival’s Green Futures Science Tent at the end of June 2017. The Science Tent, which had thousands of visitors during the five-day festival, was part of a wider outreach presence by several universities in the south. Representatives from the International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research engaged with nearly 1000 festivalgoers to partake in the fish passage marble run as they showcased research from the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment at the festival. The activity - which encouraged participants to restore a freshwater river encompassing hydropower turbines - challenged visitors to identify issues with large scale fish migration and sustainable infrastructure systems. This introduced the topic of fisheries management opening up scope for in depth conversations across a range of demongraphics. Some festivalgoers were so interested in the topics addressed that they remained within the science tent for over an hour or two of their day, with many returning with other friends and family on subsequent days.

Researchers had the opportunity to explore and further enjoy the festival during their time off!