The Festival of Science - Sinj
What is it all about?
The Festival of Science in Sinj is an annual event that hosts dozens of renowned scientists, science popularizers, and students, to popularize science, knowledge, and critical thinking. Usually, this is a one-week event with popular lectures and astronomy events for the general public, specialized lectures for students in schools, and specialized experimental workshops with a wide range of topics (from particle physics to general philosophy and art). In the last decade, with dozens of media reports, hundreds of visiting scientists and lecturers, thousands of guests, and an enormous amount of transferred knowledge, the Festival of Science transformed the image of Sinj and became an essential part of its culture.
How did it all begin?
A decade ago, in 2009, during one boring autumn day, while I was walking through the park in my hometown, I noticed high-school students sitting on the grass and drinking/smoking, during lecture time. Since I was, and in essence still am, an element of the subset of the set of society that prefers to spend time in the park on Friday and Saturday nights, I felt the need to show the possibilities that the world offers to them.
Sinj is a small town (for a decade it has been the safest place to live in Croatia, while Croatia is one of the safest countries in the EU), with a population of 10,000 people. While in bigger cities one could find certain kinds of events, usually organized by the University, that would inform high-school students about all possible study programs – in Sinj that was not the case. Students were generally uninformed and boarders of their city were basically boarders of their world.
I wanted to show them that they have enormous potential and that there exists a complete and, for them, unknown world of science and they can be part of that! They can really become physicists working at CERN, biochemists searching for the cure for cancer, or mathematicians trying to solve the Riemann hypothesis.
But I could not transport hundreds of high-school students to different universities and institutes.. nevertheless, I could bring scientists to them, in Sinj! And the idea was born.
I went to see a major of Sinj Ivica Glavan, who immediately recognized my ideas and pledged support. Soon I contacted my colleague Mislav Cvitković and we started to organize things while receiving full financial and logistic support from the city of Sinj. Very soon the director of Ruđer Bošković Institute, Danica Ramljak (born in Sinj) offered her full support and things started to roll.
And then what happened?
The very first Festival of Science was a huge success. Some of the best Croatian scientists were guests at the first Festival (Ivan Đikić, Nenad Trijanajstić, Davor Pavuna, etc.), so the lecture rooms were always full – consequently, the media cover was tremendous. As organizers, and volunteers (we never received a cent for our work), we were praised by media and we received recognition.
And we were really exhausted because Mislav and I did all the job, basically alone. Moreover, Mislav did a huge amount of organizational part, so he really needed a break and I was left alone to organize the next Festival of Science.
So, what should one do when the organization is reduced by half? Make an even bigger Festival of Science, of course!
The Regional Festival of Science 2011
This Festival was innovative in the sense that I decided to make it regional. So I invited scientists from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. And they all responded. Also, we invited students from those countries. We had a really wide range of themes: from the possible existence of aliens, the search for Higgs boson, foundations QM and philosophy of science, lectures in pubs during the night, funny chemistry experiments, etc.
During this year, dozens of scientists and students had continuous communication via Google groups. They had a common interest: the spread of science and critical thinking and war against pseudoscience. Dejan Vinković introduced me to this group and I soon noticed some interesting people: evolutionary psychologist Igor Mikloušić, physicists Saša Ceci and Dario Hrupec, and journalist Neven Barković.
So I invited them all to Sinj, for a Festival of Science.
And they accepted the invitation. For the first time, they formally met each other – it was a great moment for a history of skeptical thought in Croatia.
This Festival was an even bigger success than the first one, and when it came to organization and logistics, I did it alone (of course, without essential help from Ramljak and Glavan, nothing of this would have been possible), with Jelena Bakić helping me during the event. During the event, I only slept 1-2 hours per day, and two weeks before the event I slept 3-4 hours per night on average. Great days for my health!
2012: the Year of Reason
Do you remember how the bunch of people waited world to end in 2012? Well, in Croatia, especially in Sinj, we waited for something else.
As mentioned before, the two main groups for critical thinking and popularization of science were formed in 2011: Society and CFI-Croatia.The first one did not have a formal leader, and the second one was led by Slobodan Danko Bosanac. I was, and still am, a member of the second group. So it is Marija Mađor-Božinović (now a Ph.D. student in quantum field theory) who helped organize the Festival of Science in 2012.
The topic was Critical Thinking and most of the lectures were about critical thinking, pseudoscience, reason, etc. We even had some lectures regarding secularism. Both main groups were invited and both sent the lecturers.
I cannot think of a bigger skeptic event in the history of Croatia. For one week, Sinj was the center of skeptical thinking – from public lectures, to the lectures in school, to, even, lectures in pubs (Sceptics in Pub).
And this is a Festival of Science that I am most proud of.
Und so weiter?
Of course, the rest is history, and you can read more on the official page of the Festival of Science – Sinj. Today I am less involved because I am far away from Sinj (and I tend to move often), but Mislav is doing exceptional work and the Festival is still going on. It became a sort of tradition.
This project influenced my life and I am glad that I was, and still am, part of it.
And if you want to be part of it, in any way, do not hesitate to contact us.
Science is for everyone!
P.S If you would like to read more, in English of course, here are some news article links: 2013, 2017, 2018.