WHAT IS STARMUS?
Starmus is a biennial festival bringing together leading scientists, legendary astronauts and iconic musicians and artists who share their passion for knowledge with the public.
Every edition of the festival is organised around a particular theme related to space exploration and includes talks, debates, panel discussions, exhibitions, concerts, film screenings and other activities. Starmus also offers a City Programme, a morning agenda of talks, presentations, workshops, screenings, etc. all around the city and available freely to general public.
Each festival is followed by the publication of a beautifully-designed book containing the lectures of al the speakers accompanied by excellent pictures. Every edition of the festival has granted the attendees a unique experience, each in its own way, a symbiosis between exclusive talks and once-in-a-lifetime concerts.
- 2011 Founded in 2011, the first edition of Starmus was a tribute to Yuri Gagarin and hosted Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Alexei Leonov, Jim Lovell, Bill Anders, Brian May, Kip Thorne and other legendary figures of science, art and space exploration. more about starmus I
- 2014 The second edition of Starmus, held in 2014, featured Stephen Hawking alongside several Nobel prize winners, Apollo, Soyuz and ESA astronauts and legendary artists. more about starmus II
- 2016 The third edition of Starmus (2016) was a tribute to Stephen Hawking and hosted the first ceremony of the Stephen Hawking Medal award, a prestigious prize awarded to distinguished science communicators, such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Big Bang Theory, Jean-Michel Jarre, Jim Al-Khalili, Particle Fever and Hans Zimmer. more about starmus III
- 2017 The fourth edition of Starmus, held in 2017 in Trondheim, featured 11 Nobel Prize winners and a number of world-class astronauts, as well as such artists as Steve Vai, Ane Brun, Trondheim Soloist, Nuno Bettancourt and The Pineapple Thief. more about starmus IV
- 2019 The fifth edition of Starmus took place in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2019, under the title A Giant Leap.
The Stephen Hawking Medal was awarded to Elon Musk, Buzz Aldrin, Brian Eno and the documentary Apollo 11, screened during the festival for the first time in Europe.more about starmus V
Starmus Advisory Board
Brian May
Musician and astrophysicist
Emmanuelle Charpentier
Microbiologist and biochemist
Richard Dawkins
Ethologist, evolutionary biologist
Garik Israelian
Astrophysicist and Starmus Founding Director
Tony Fadell
iPod inventor, iPhone co-inventor, Nest founder, and Future Shape principal
David Eicher
Editor, writer, and popularizer
Peter Gabriel
Singer, record producer, humanitarian
Jill Tarter
Astrophysicist
Robert Williams
Astrophysicist
past board members
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Discover the Cosmos and change the world!
Discover the Cosmos and Change the World is a conference featuring high-impact researchers and scientists from different fields. Starmus was designed as a space for sharing and obtaining knowledge from top professionals in order to apply this knowledge in real life. Scientific discoveries may seem very distant and complex, especially when they are related to space, but they can and will change our lives for the better if we know how to apply them in our lives. This assumption is confirmed by many examples from the previous editions of the festival: feedback from participants and fruitful collaborative projects originated from encounters between speakers and performers. -
108 minutes Round Table
The very first Starmus (2011) was a tribute to the first manned space flight and the person who performed it, Yuri Gagarin. It lasted exactly 108 minutes, probably the most crucial 108 minutes in the history of mankind. Nothing would be the same since then. To commemorate this exceptional event in history, the Starmus Round Table gathers the most brilliant minds of the humanity to discuss an important topic under the dome of a telescope during exactly 108 minutes. The Round Table participants are Nobel Prize winners, astronauts and musicians of high impact.In 2011, 2014 and 2016, Round Tables were held under the dome of the world’s largest telescope, GTC (Gran Telescopio Canario). -
The Star Party
Star Parties are organised near observatories or high up in the mountains where the participants can connect with the stars and “listen to their voice”. Traditionally, many music and science stars are also present at Star Parties, an exceptional occasion to rub shoulders with the most iconic characters of our times. The star parties in 2011 and 2014 were held in Teide National Park. We had live music at Starmus II by No Sound at Teide Observatory, after which No Sound produced a CD and a DVD. The Star Party in 2016 was organised in Tenerife Wind Farm. Light and music design were done by Brian Eno. The party also featured a live concert by Anathema. -
Sonic Universe Concert
Science and art are two ways of exploring the world, and they are all the more powerful when they are combined. The Sonic Universe concerts feature artists who use music to talk about space and speak about science and space exploration using the language of emotions. We hosted Tangerone Dream, Brian May, Rick Wakeman, Hans Zimmer and Sarah Brightman at different editions of Starmus.