SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director of the Astrophysical Institute of the Canary Islands (IAC), Rafael Rebolo, and the director of the ‘Starmus Festival’, Garik Israelian, announced this Friday that the event will be organized again in 2024 on the island of La Palma, a project in which We have been working “hand in hand” to obtain the necessary institutional support to recover the prestigious festival for the islands.
“We are working to make this a reality and the way we have found is to relate it to the protection of the sky as a good for humanity, which is why we will go hand in hand with the Starlight Foundation. We are in time to raise awareness in society about the pollution of our sky, especially with the launch of small satellites and we believe that Starmus is the appropriate way to do so,” highlighted Israelian,
Along these lines, he pointed out that the new edition of the festival in La Palma “has to be a revolution for the island”, a project where the space will once again be placed at the center of the theme.
In this sense, he clarified that the organization will get to work on the palm edition once the funds allocated by the institutions involved are signed.
The announcement was made during the world presentation of the documentary recorded during the last edition of ‘Starmus’ in Armenia, whose premiere will be tonight at the Yelmo cinemas in the Meridiano shopping center.
Under the title ’50 years on Mars’, this audiovisual production summarizes the sixth edition held in Yerevan (Armenia) in 2022 and which featured the Red Planet.
“This documentary has been an experiment for us, now the idea is to recover the material recorded on the islands and make a Canarian documentary. In addition, the experience in Armenia helps us bring that festival model to La Palma, we want to involve all palm trees,” he said.
The director and astrophysicist highlighted that throughout these years the festival has managed to count on the support of institutions, artists and the scientific community with the sole objective of disseminating scientific content, making it closer to society.
The documentary is directed in three parts by Todd Douglas Miller, director of films such as Apollo XI (winner of two Emmys); astrophysicist and festival co-director Garik Israelian and well-known Queen founder and astrophysicist Brian May.
Almost two hours of audiovisual material with which the directors wanted to capture the social, scientific and cultural impact of this event for the city of Yeraván.
MORE THAN 100 PRESENTATIONS IN THE LATEST EDITION
The last edition featured 100 presentations on different topics, seven of them from Nobel Prize winners Kip Thorne, Michele Mayor, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Edvard Moser, Donna Strikland, Jonh Mather and Kurt Wuthich.
In addition, world-class speakers such as astronauts Charlie Duke and Chris Hadfiel, the inventor of the iPad/Iphone Tony Fadel, former NASA administrator Charlie Bolden, among others, also participated.
The presentations were followed by more than 7,000 people, according to a note from the organizers.
This scientific proposal was joined by more than 50 musical performances such as Brian May (guitarist of the rock band Queen and co-founder of Starmus), Serj Tankian (vocalist and founder of System of a Down), Rick Wakeman (Keyboardist of Yes ), Graham Gouldman (Member of 10cc), famous progressive rock band Sons of Apollo and guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns and Roses).