Beakerhead organizers are back this September with an all new program, featuring more than 60 events.
Mary Anne Moser, the president and co-founder of Beakerhead, said there are a range of workshops, from making cocktails or chocolate chip cookies, to playing board games with experts (like Operation with a surgeon).
There are also events and installations to take in around the city, including central locations like Stephen Avenue and RiverWalk, and more than 30 restaurants participating in Engineered Eats. Here are a few of the highlights that Calgarians will be able to take in between Sept. 4 and 18.
Beakernight
This colourful Sept. 17 street party, which the festival describes as “a massive outdoor gallery of art and engineering,” will feature live music and performances and large, interactive installations like a human-sized hamster wheel, a can-crushing cow and a pedal-powered brain. The event, which drew about 40,000 people last year, will be taking place in Bridgeland.
File photo of a flame-throwing arcade game at Beakernight.
Nibbles
The bunnies are back. Anyone who had a chance to take in the illuminated rabbits in Central Memorial Park last year can expect to see the baby versions of those installations, courtesy of Australian artist Amanda Parer.
“They’re littler, they’re cuter, and there are more of them,” said Moser.
The Nibbles installation is back at this year’s Beakerhead, but this year, there will be baby bunnies.
Tentacles
A massive octopus will take over a building in Inglewood as part of this installation by U.K. artists Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas.
“Its tentacles will be busting out,” said Moser. “They’re about 16 feet long.”
Moser suggests starting at this site and exploring other Beakerhead installations along Calgary’s RiverWalk.
The Tentacles exhibit that will invade an Inglewood building as part of Beakerhead.
Saturnian
If you carry on the RiverWalk to Fort Calgary, you can take in this artwork by Bee Kingdom Glass. The installation is a giant, 20-by-20 foot narwhal-humpback hybrid.
A rendering of Beakerhead installation Saturnian.
BASS Ship
It might look like a spaceship, but this two-storey installation that will be located on the East Village RiverWalk is actually meant to be a communications device for sending messages to outer space.
A rendering of Beakerhead installation BASS Ship.
