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.  This year, coming back from two years of virtual festivals gave us the right opportunity.

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.