The first annual Interplanetary Festival will draw space enthusiasts from around the world for a two-day celebration of human ingenuity on June 7 and 8, 2018, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A decidedly UFO-friendly celebration of art, ideas and science surrounding the challenges of space travel is what will draw the visitors to this festival.

The festival will transform the Railyard District in downtown Santa Fe with an expo showcasing innovation and technology for space exploration. Concurrent with the expo, participants can enjoy open-air concerts, maker spaces, lectures, panel discussions, food, beer, and citizen science projects and games centered around Interplanetary topics.

"This is a festival where we’re asking people to come and have fun, but also to contribute towards a global challenge of becoming an interplanetary civilization,” says SFI President David Krakauer.

"The arts — visual arts, cinematic, literary, musical — expand our imaginations and they explore territories that we don't even know exist. I've always felt that science wouldn't function without the arts." Art, he says, plays a critical role in the Interplanetary Project.

"We, now, as researchers need to reach out to a broader base in order to address complex issues such as resource use, economic inequality, and climate change," Krakauer says. "One way to bring people together is to make the science interesting and very aspirational. Posing an interplanetary challenge brings all of the best minds to the table, and also has the virtue of potentially producing an interplanetary civilization."

As a global destination for both the arts and sciences, Santa Fe is the ideal location for a festival that celebrates innovation across these domains. The Interplanetary Festival coincides with the opening of the CURRENTS New Media art installation and the inaugural Nation of Makers Conference (NOMCON) in Santa Fe.

NOMCON will make Santa Fe a focal point for a movement empowered by increasingly affordable digital tools like 3-D printers, laser cutters and computer-controlled cutting machines called computer numerical control (CNC) routers that make cheap prototyping and manufacturing accessible.

Currents New Media Festival showcases interactive and multimedia works, virtual reality and augmented reality environments, video, animation, experimental documentaries and robotics.

Finally, Santa Fe will host a cutting-edge professional graphic design conclave called the Motion Festival at the New Mexico History Museum from June 6 to 8.

“It’s this weird synergy, but it makes perfect sense what’s going on,” says the Santa Fe Institute’s Caitlin McShea, director of the Interplanetary Festival. “There’s a burgeoning network of future tech experts and new media artists here, and there is this moment when all of this stuff is becoming just as definitive of what Santa Fe is as the traditional touristic image.