Your piece on the SciBarCamp in the last issue caught my eye. Innovative, unconventional, and – best of all – fun events like that which dispel the all-too widespread public impression of science as stiff, elitist and – worst of all – boring are sorely needed.

Fortunately, they are becoming more commonplace, including our own Guerilla Science Camp (GSC) at the Secret Garden Party music festival this summer.

Housed in a ramshackle army tent near Huntingdon, with hay bales for seating, we sought to surprise, fascinate and entertain revelers over four days at the end of July. In its second year, the camp seeks to ‘promote public understanding of science in an original setting,’ in the words of founder Richard Bowdler.

Lots to do

The GSC hosted more than two dozen talks by academic scientists and professional science communicators, ranging from explanations of string theory and quantum mechanics, to climate change proofs and solutions, fractal patterns and fluid dynamics, to the neuroscience of memory and the evolution of music. Attenders were also able to test their telepathy skills in a double-blind experiment, learn how to beat-box (use their voice boxes to make instrumental sounds) with a laryngeal expert, and create gooey scale models of nanomaterials, as well as groove to the tunes of science-themed music.

We estimate that more than 1,000 people attended the camp, many of whom had never expected to discover – in a music festival of all places – how puzzling, beautiful and fun empiricism can be. Festival goer Carolyn Puppet told us: ‘I stopped studying science after GCSE but I loved Guerilla Science. As soon as I woke up each morning I'd go straight there. My favorite talk was the one where you hear the planets speak.’

Fewer students are taking science A-levels, and there is an indisputable need for greater public understanding of science, especially climate change, evolution, and vaccination. Opening people's eyes when they least expect it – covered in sparkles in a sunny field – is an original and, we feel, inspired way to do it.

Mark Rosin PhD Student, Cambridge, and Guerilla Scientist