Cheltenham Science Festival @ Home attracted 42,000 people during the six-day virtual festival, which ran from Tuesday 2 to Sunday 7 June 2020.
The virtual event has been viewed 115,000 times so far, with all the content available to stream on the Cheltenham Festivals YouTube channel until Tuesday 7 July 2020.
The unique virtual event, organised by Cheltenham Festivals, featured scientists and thought leaders from across the world, including Professor Brian Cox, space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming and Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees.
There were over 50 talks, workshops and Q&A sessions and over 60 hours of video footage pulled together in just a few weeks by the Cheltenham Festivals team, following the cancellation of Cheltenham Science Festival due to the Coronavirus lockdown.
Head of programming, Marieke Navin, said: ‘We wanted to turn the situation into a positive and reach a new audience. With a digital festival there’s no physical or financial barrier: you don’t have to be in Cheltenham and you don’t have to buy a ticket. We are very grateful to our partners for their support and to everyone who continues to donate to our Crowdfunder appeal so that we can come back next year.’
Donors have raised £6,800 through the festival’s Crowdfunder appeal. Organisers are hoping to have hit the £10,000 target by the time the appeal ends on Tuesday 7 July 2020.
For more information, visit cheltenhamfestivals.com.
