Geek Picnic

Geek Picnic
Genre science and technology festival
Frequency Annually
Location(s) St. Petersburg, Moscow
Inaugurated 2011
Website
http://geek-picnic.me

Geek Picnic is the largest Eastern European open air festival dedicated to popular science, modern technology, science and art.[1][2]

It was established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 2011. Since 2014, separate festival sessions take place in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 2016 Geek Picnic will be held in Israel, for the first time.[3]

Festivals

Quadcopters show, 2013
Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov и Aleksandr Volkov speaking at a festival event, 2013

2011

The first Geek Picnic took place, at the New Holland Island in Saint Petersburg, on August 6, 2011. It presented several scientific shows, including 3D printing and robotics, as well as indoor and outdoor activities like modern game consoles, monocycles, jumping stilts, gaming zone and sports ground.[4] The festival attracted more than 1500 visitors.

2012

The second Geek Picnic was held at the same location on August, 3rd. It featured a wide variety of events including robot exhibition, a number of lectures in the format of TEDx and masterclasses by recognized experts from Russian IT companies (Gaidar Magdanurov, Grachik Adzhamian, Alexey Voinov, Filipp Katz, Kirill Shichanov and Yury Lifshits), a job fair for programmers and a dedicated Windarium Windows education site. The recreational zone offered open library, gaming space, sports and a picnic. Around 7000 people have visited the event.[5]

2013

In 2013, Geek Picnic was a two-day festival held at Yelagin Island. The territory was divided into 4 zones dedicated to technology, science, art and picnic. The festival featured a display of most recent inventions in robotics and 3d printing, interactive science museum, meteorite exhibition[6] and Fab lab.[2] Event schedule included lectures by cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, historian Lev Lurie, a known polyglot, language teacher and television presenter Dmitry Petrov, engineer Anatoly Wasserman, and Nigel Ackland, known to be the world’s first person to receive a bionic prosthetic arm, and numerous entrepreneurs, scientists and academics.[1] The Russian quadcopter racing championship took place during the festival. Recreational areas included food court, playground and open-air exhibitions.[7][8][9][10] Visitor count exceeded 15000 through 2 days.[5]

2014

A girl testing Oculus Rift headset at Geek Picnic in Moscow, 2014

The winter session of 2014 Geek Picnic took place in VDNKh , Moscow, on January 25–26. Theme zones dedicated to technology, science and art, entertainment, lectorium and a playground for children were set up in a 15 thousand square meters pavilion.[11] A number of speakers including Anatoly Wasserman and futurologist Dmitry Gluchovskiy gave lectures, and the founder of the Venus project Jacque Fresco held a skype conference call. The festival featured musical performance by Alexander Robotnick and the Desert Planet band. The displays included the world’s biggest Tesla coil, 3D bioprinter prototype, quadcopter show, sculptures of Transformers characters and a robot show featuring Exoatlet hauler and InMoove android.[12][13][14] The event had 30000 visitors.

The summer Geek Picnic was held at Yelagin Island, Saint-Petersburg, in August. The event schedule included over 60 lectures and 30 masterclasses and workshops, drone and robot operation competitions, programming contest. Festival featured DIY-zones, robotics and 3D printing exhibition[15][16] as well as 3D printed fashion show by Larisa Katz, Pia Hinze and Joshua Harker[17] and had a total of 18000 visitors.[18][19]

2015

That year, both Moscow and Saint Petersburg festivals took place in summer. The Geek Picnic in Moscow was held in Krasnaya Presnya park and featured 6 theme zones named 'Technology', 'Science', 'Art', 'Piknic', 'Expo' and 'Market'.[20] A huge convention of people with bionic implants and prosthetics was the core event of the festival. Bebionic pioneer [Nigel Ackland], Actress [Angel Guiffria],'cyborg' activist Neil Harbisson, Jens Naumann whose vision is partially restored by brain implant, drummer Jason Barnes with robotic arm, and model and singer Viktoria Modesta, were among the participants.[21] The musicians who played on the 3D-printed instruments also performed on the Picnic. 2015 Moscow Geek Picnic schedule also included music show performed on 3D printed instruments, fireworks, drone championship, lectures by Anatoly Wasserman, space test pilot Sergey Ryazansky and painter Boryana Rossa, and a communication session with Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko from aboard the ISS. The festival in Moscow had 22000 visitors.[22][23][24]

The Saint Petersburg 2015 Geek Picnic was held at Yelagin Island on June, 20th and 21th and had an event schedule similar to earlier Moscow festival. The visitors were greeted by a 6-ton robotic arm.[25] The educational part of festival featured talks by the head of the Pushkin Museum Marina Loshak, artistic director of the Bolshoi Drama Theater Andrey Moguchy, musician Oleg Nesterov, ‘Mediaculture’ laboratory head Andrey Svibovich and other science and art workers joined by ‘cyborgs’ Nicolas Huchet and Viktoria Modesta. Pecha Kucha took place during the events. The festival had approximately 25000 visitors.[26]

2016

On April 25–27, Geek Picnic will be held in the Sacher Park in Jerusalem, Israel.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Danya Tristan (2013-08-05). "Люди в городе: Герои и посетители Geek Picnic". The Village. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  2. 1 2 Anna Gamzikova (2013-08-04). "В Петербурге роботы танцевали брэйк-данс". Metro News. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  3. 1 2 "International sensation Geek PicNic comes to Israel". Israel Ministry of Tourism. 2016-02-22. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  4. ↑ "6 августа в СПб прошел первый Geek Picnic". ITmozg.ru. 2011-08-09. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  5. 1 2 "Фестиваль науки Geek picnic в Петербурге посетят около 15 тыс человек". RIA Novosti. 2013-07-15. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  6. ↑ "Первый день Geek Picnic: ярмарка полезных безумств". RIA Novosti. 2013-08-04. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  7. ↑ "Открытый чемпионат России по квадрокоптерам". 2013-07-19. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  8. ↑ "На "Гик Пикнике" посмотрели на танцующих роботов и сыграли на виртуальных струнах". Газета "Петербургский дневник". 2013-08-04. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  9. ↑ Nikolay Ovchinnikov (2013-07-29). "Самые интересные события Geek Picnic". Sobaka.Ru Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  10. ↑ "В Петербурге проходит "Гик Пикник" с танцующими роботами и квадрокоптерами". MR.ru. 2013-08-04. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  11. ↑ "У меня корова фишку украла!". Lenta.ru. 2014-01-26. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  12. ↑ Anastasia Orlova (2014-02-14). "Заморозь мороженное. Научное знание должно быть аппетитным". Poisk News. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  13. ↑ Daria Abramova (2014-01-24). "Лаборатория беспилотников Look At Me и еще 10 событий первого московского Geek Picnic". Look At Me. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  14. ↑ Kristina Manzhula (2014-01-28). "Geek Picnic 2014: сходка гиканутых". Rusbase.com. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  15. ↑ Maria Guseva (2014-08-09). "Geek Picnic на Елагином острове. День 1 — 9 августа". Sobaka.Ru Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  16. ↑ Ilya Gorbunov (2014-08-11). "На GEEK PICNIC в Петербург приехали имперские штурмовики". Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  17. ↑ Whitney Hipolite (2014-08-27). "'3D Print Fashion' – Russian Runway Show Features Some of the World's Top 3D Printed Fashion". 3DPrint.com. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  18. ↑ Maria Guseva (2014-08-10). "Geek Picnic на Елагином острове. День 2 — 10 августа". Sobaka.Ru Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  19. ↑ "Петербургский Geek Picnic: итоги фестиваля в области технологий, науки и искусства". Education-events.ru. 2014-08-15. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  20. ↑ "Москва и Петербург увидят последние достижения киборгизации". Colta.ru. 2015-04-18. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  21. ↑ "В рамках Geek Picnic пройдет съезд людей с бионическими протезами". Moscow 24. 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  22. ↑ "Космонавты приняли участие в фестивале современных технологий, науки и искусства "GEEK PICNIC"". Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. 2014-06-16. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  23. ↑ Yulia Ruzmanova (2015-06-08). "В парке "Красная Пресня" пройдёт фестиваль Geek Picnic". The Village. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  24. ↑ "Пикник для гиков: крупнейший европейский фестиваль науки, технологий и искусства прошел в Москве". Nauka i Zhizn. 2015-06-16. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  25. ↑ "На фестивале технологий GEEK PICNIC в ЦПКиО петербуржцев поприветствовала гигантская роботизированная рука". BaltInfo.ru. 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  26. ↑ "GEEK PICNIC-фестиваль технологий, науки и искусства". Yelagin Park. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
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