For a whole week the Royal Albert Hall is hosting the
Close Encounters Festival, an other-worldly combination of arts, science, fun and education aimed at adults, children and possibly aliens too, if there happen to be any nearby.
The festival promises a "multi-sensory intergalactic experience" featuring interactive installations, shows, talks, screenings of retro movies, and a lot more.
Main events:
Family tours of this spectacular venue will explain its splendid 139-year history and look at how the Victorians influenced our understanding of the universe.
The Royal Albert Hall's resident band will be performing a set based on the theme of space. This celestial symphony takes place, like most of the festival's events, in the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room.
Ever seen something strange in the sky? Author, journalist and UFO expert Nick Pope will be giving a talk entitled 'The British Government's UFO Files', looking through the Ministry of Defence's archive of recently released files detailing UFO happenings within the British Isles and looking at how the government investigates such mysterious events.
The Mountains on the Moon Mini Workshop, for 9-14 year olds, takes a closer look at the only other block of rock 'out there' on which man has set foot and, with the help of a visiting astronomer from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, you'll have a chance to make your very own lunar landscape with clay!
Special screenings during the week include
ET,
Alien,
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and
Barbarella.
Author of the popular Astrobiology book 'Life in the Universe: A Beginner's Guide', Lewis Dartnell, looks at how life emerged on our planet and where else it might exist in the universe.
Other events include a 'Make a Crater Workshop', a talk by astronomer Dr Marek Kukula entitled 'Craters, Collisions and Catastrophes', and a show for children (over 4s) intriguingly called "Goldilocks and the Three Aliens'.
Fun food for the kids includes alien invasion cup-cakes, monster-bag lunchboxes, and a variety of sweets available from the cosmic candy shop.
Whether you're fascinated by the mysteries of outer space, or just simply love a good sci-fi movie, the Royal Albert Hall's mothership is ready and waiting to transport you to another world.
For full information regarding times and tickets, see
the event's website.
