“The Wisconsin Science Festival was started back in 2011,” said Francesca Long, an outreach specialist with the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. “And it was the brain child of George Tzougros, Laura Heisler and other folks who really wanted to represent the arts and the sciences together. That first year, it was about four days of events just here in Madison. But over the last 15 years, the festival has really grown. And this year, we have about 250 unique events all throughout the state. And we have events in 56 counties in Wisconsin. And it’s been great to see how much it has grown.”

The fusion of art and science — or rather recognizing their already intertwined relationship — is at the heart of the festival.

“It’s always been our basic understanding that the two are really linked,” Long said. “There is a lot of art within science and a lot of science within art. And it also helps break down the accessibility barrier for science. Some people view science as this kind of stand alone lofty field. It can feel that there isn’t a way to access it. But by pairing it with the arts, it kind of breaks that down a little bit more and allows more folks to really engage with it. There is a lot of creativity in science. All of the questions that we do experiments on are all based off of creative thinking. Wondering why something happens the way it does and coming up with a creative way to prove whether it does or doesn’t. And so there are a lot of ways that they overlap. But again, it mostly comes down to finding ways for folks to engage in science in a new way.”

In many ways, Long’s career reflects the STEAM concept.

“The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery houses the Wisconsin Science Festival,” Long said. “And part of my role within that is to be operations manager with the Wisconsin Science Festival. I actually attended UW-Madison for my undergraduate degree in engineering. I went off to grad school for engineering and then museum studies. I came back to Madison and worked at the Madison Children’s Museum for a little bit and then migrated back towards campus to this really great role paring science outreach and the arts. It’s my dream job and the festival is my dream engagement opportunity.”

The 2025 Wisconsin Science Festival will be held for a week beginning October 16^th throughout the state of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery relies on a lot of help from its friends and partners.

“Our library partners throughout the state have really taken hold of the festival and run with it in their own way,” Long said. “And every year, we find ways to engage with new groups throughout the state. Part of that is thanks to our festival feature because it gives something fresh and a new perspective to look at science and the arts each year. Watching it grow has been great. It means that a lot of it happens outside of our control. We get these amazing event submissions and they all log onto our website and we help promote them. But then it’s really each of them running their own events and doing them under the umbrella of the science festival just to show how much Wisconsinites enjoy science and the arts.”

Some of those partners really help the festival have a statewide presence and impact.

“We work pretty closely with the Wisconsin Book Festival,” Long said. “I believe that partnership began back in 2014. We work together to bring STEM authors to the Wisconsin Book Festival and cross-promote them and highlight them together. They’ve been excellent to work with. We work a lot with the UW Badger Talks program. They help us do Badger Talks and Badgers on Tap throughout the state. The Wisconsin Sea Grant has been a really great partner these past few years and help with our statewide Bioblitz project, which last year brought in 6,500 bioblitz observations all throughout the state and helped us capture some of the great Wisconsin nature that we have out there. We work a lot with the Wisconsin Arts Board. Again  George Tzougros, one of our founders, is with the Wisconsin Arts Board and helps us make connections every year. And then we try to work with local businesses and organizations and different researchers on campus as well.”

About 20 percent of the Wisconsin Science Festival happens in the Madison area and 80 percent in many other locales distributed throughout the state. The Discovery team manages the events held on the UW-Madison campus and is directly involved with most of the events happening in the Madison area. And it keeps on expanding every year.

“This year, we have events just about every day of the week,” Long said. “We’re kicking off with our biggest one, which is Science on the Square, on the 16^th of October. And then on October 17^th, we’re doing an event called Sci-prov where we bring researchers and improv groups together and they do a fun kind of mash-up of science and improv comedy. And then the following week starting on Monday, October 20^th, we have a lot more events happening on campus as well.”

In many ways, Science on the Square is the crown jewel of the science festival, a collaboration with several organizations.

“This is going to be the eighth year for Science on the Square,” Long said. “We do it in partnership with the Madison Night Market. I believe prior to that, we used to organize it on our own and it was just a lot more hassle. But now that we get to work with the folks at the Madison Central Business Improvement District, it’s gotten much easier for us to integrate the sciences with all of the different night market vendors. Now that it is our eighth year, we kind of have the formula locked into place. That definitely helps with the planning process.”

Science on the Square is integrated into the Madison Night Market stretching from Library Mall to the Capitol Square.

“It’s a big, fun night,” Long exclaimed. “We start recruiting science presenters in August. It’s a lot of matchmaking with businesses who are interested in hosting a scientist in their space. They set up on State Street. You have the normal Night Market along the whole length of State Street. And then interspersed between the Night Market vendors, we have those science stations. These activities range from things like looking at microbes under a microscope, making slime or looking at the geological history of our state. There are just a loot of fun ways to engage with research happening on campus. And then we partner with local businesses who are willing to have scientists inside of their establishment as well. And that’s a really fun way to fuse what Downtown Madison has to offer with these scientific experiences. We also work with the Wonders of Physics folks who are bringing their live physics show back to State Street again. We’ll have a couple additions to their amazing live show with some new experiments that they have just for us this year. That’s very exciting.”

And it is definitely a big production.

“We have about 57 different science groups who are going to be participating this year,” Long said. “We have 25 tents on State Street that are just going to be our scientists. We have 12 businesses hosting scientists this year. And then we have a whole bunch of different groups that will be at the Madison Children’s Museum and the Madison Central Library. This is our biggest year for our science presence down on State Street with almost 60 folks participating.”

With the help of the Madison Children’s Museum, the festival is having a larger presence on the Capitol Square.

“Last year, for the first time, the Night Market extended up to the Capitol Square,” Long said. “This year, we’re doing it again and we’re going to have the Curiosity Cube from Millipore Sigma. They are going to bring in their big, old portable lab with them. And that’s going to be up on the Capitol Square and it goes all the way out to the Madison Children’s Museum.”

The science offerings are not passive demonstrations. They actively engage the audience.

“It’s not just going up and hearing someone talk to you for five minutes,” Long said. “It’s getting hands-on with something. It’s making something. It’s touching something, feeling something, experimenting with something. Everything is designed to be hands-on and engaging so that you really get to experience the science that you are looking at.”

And that feature makes it fun for children and adults alike.

“It’s fun when people come to Madison Night Market knowing that it is Science on the Square,” Long observed. “And they know which groups they are looking for or which stations they are hoping to see again. And it’s also really exciting when you get people who were coming for te regular Madison Night Market, didn’t know it was the science festival at the same time and all of a sudden now they are trying something new. We have families with kiddos who are glad there is something more engaging to do than just go shopping for the night. And then you get adults of all ages who are going, ‘Wow, I did an experiment I did back in college. I haven’t done science for 30 years. How cool it is to see it happening again.’ It’s really been overwhelmingly positive. And it’s great to work with our local businesses. We get the same folks coming back year after year who are excited to host scientists again.”

There are several ways that people who wish to attend can find out what is being offered by Science on the Square.

“The nice thing is working with the Madison Night Market, they have their interactive map that they will publish before the event that lists all of the vendors,” Long said. “But then they will have a little bleeper that will indicate that a location is a science location. And if you go to our festival website at www.wiscifest.org/sots, we have a list of all of the different stations and all of their locations up and down State Street. And we will also have our festival info tent down on the 400 block of State Street, just across from the Madison Visitors Center. Our staff will have maps and can help point out all of the different stations. The event goes from 5-9 p.m. on Thursday, October 16^th. There are a couple of locations with different hours. The Madison Children’s Museum will have their Free Family Night from 4-8 p.m. That’s a great time if you want to get started early. You can stop there first and then make your way down State Street. The Madison Central Library will have their stations open from 5-8:30 p.m. There will be stargazing on their terrace. That will start at sunset.”

And the festival is affordable, family fun.

“All of the stations are free to engage with,” Long said. “All of the businesses are open for you to pop in and see what they have in store as well. If you want to buy something, that’s not free. Ian’s Pizza does a special Wisconsin Science Festival slice. It’s called ‘What’s the Buzz?’ It’s pretty delicious.”

No matter where one lives in Wisconsin, there is a Wisconsin Science Fair event happening within 60 miles of one’s home. And it’s a fun way to engage children in the sciences in a very accessible way. The Science on the Square and Madison Night Market are the perfect formula for entertaining evening on an autumn night in Madison.