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The Festival is held on the waterfront at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus (corner of 6th Ave S and 2nd Street S), and at Poynter Park (3rd Street S).
MarineQuest is held at the same time next door at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
Attendees are encouraged to visit both events.
Friday, February 9, 2024 will be the Sneak Peek School Day. The Festival will be on the USF St. Pete campus. Schools must register to participate. Registration typically opens in the fall.
Saturday, February 10, 2024 from 10am-4pm will be the Public Festival Day. There will be exhibits, main stage programs, and concessions on the USF St. Pete campus.
The St. Petersburg Science Festival (SPSF) is a free, public celebration offering a wide range of hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math-related activities. They include creative and compelling exhibits, demonstrations, tours, discussions and performances. SPSF is offered in conjunction with Florida Fish and Wildlife’s MarineQuest.
The SPSF also offers a Sneak Peek for schools on the Friday before the public festival to provide local schools and students a sneak peek. Students in grades 4 and 5 will spend time experiencing hands-on science activities in a variety of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics discipline.
We held the festival in October for years. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the public festival day in 2019 at the last minute due to a Tropical Storm. That began discussions about moving the event out of hurricane season. 2023 gave us the right opportunity to test a spring event and we loved it!
The Festival is held on the grounds of the Poynter Park and University of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus – Bayboro Waterfront, 140 Seventh Ave. S., St. Petersburg, FL, 33701.
From Sixth Avenue South at the USF Bull statue walk along Harborwalk (find the tall, flag signs). The festival extends from here to the grassy area on the waterfront behind Davis Hall. Look for the many tents. You can’t miss it!
The City of St. Petersburg is home to many festivals; our community proudly celebrates our local art, sports, and music. These festivals showcase the amazing array of assets the Tampa Bay area has to offer and the community loves them.
St. Petersburg has numerous academic institutions, corporations and government agencies that are heavily invested in science, technology, engineering and math. It is also home to the St. Petersburg Ocean Team, a marine science research community of more than 1,600 working scientists and researchers.
This festival highlights St. Petersburg’s hidden science treasures, engages the community, and inspires young minds to become tomorrow’s innovators.
The St. Petersburg Science Festival is a grassroots community volunteer effort and the collaborators are a “who’s who” of science organizations in St. Petersburg and their friends. They include people from major academic centers to leading research organizations, cutting edge high technology corporations, museums, environmental outreach organizations, volunteer student interns who are planning, organizing and executing all the functions that go into putting on a public science event.
Sponsors from throughout the community, many of them collaborators, have provided funding for the science festival.
Parking is available downtown at the SouthCore Parking Garage – $5 for the day.
Free trolleys run to the St. Petersburg Science Festival and MarineQuest all day Saturday from the SouthCore parking garage (101 1st Avenue S). Trolley information will be posted a couple of weeks before the Festival.
Additional Parking at the USFSP parking garage, floors 2-4
Disabled Parking
Festival Street Closures Between 7am – 5pm
The Science Festival is a “carnival of science” filled with indoor and outdoor hands-on exhibits and activities. Among the exhibits and sights: view underwater remotely operated vehicles, peer into a microscope, learn about circuits, and see what marine life lives off of Florida’s coasts. You’ll have the opportunity to chat with experts from the fields of marine science, forensics, and exploration, just to name a few.
You will participate, create, interact, and be entertained!
We are fortunate to have many exhibitors who return every year. They include: Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, Mad Science, NOAA, Pathfinder, The Florida Aquarium, U.S. Geological Survey, and USF College of Marine Science.
The public festival on Saturday is appropriate for all ages.
No pets please.
The Science Festival is free!
The Festival has a selection of food and beverage vendors participating. In past years this included:
The Campus Grind
The Tavern At Bayboro
We created online content for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 Festivals. Follow the links below to see a story map of the 2019 Festival and the full interactive sites for the 2020 and 2021 Festivals.