In partnership with RELAYS, the Evolution Rocks! Fossil Festival is to be held in Lyme Regis over the second May Bank Holiday weekend. The event will be unearthing the past and helping visitors to understand what it can tell us about the future. The Festival will give visitors of all ages an opportunity to observe, learn and take part in a wide range of activities designed to fire the imagination and kindle a desire to know more.
The event, which is held in association with the community festival and events strand of RELAYS, will include fossil-hunting walks on the beach, collectors showing and discussing their finds, scientists analysing the past and looking at the future, artists, musicians and actors all offering an opportunity to look, listen, touch, question and above all, to stimulate the enquiring mind.
A team of experts from the Natural History Museum will answer questions, oversee interactive activities and host a live link to the Darwin Centre in South Kensington. Coinciding with the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, the Festival will also include a variety of talks on Evolution, a re-enactment of the Great Oxford Debate and an exhibition of water-colours painted by local artist and ornithologist, John Gould FSC. His beautiful paintings illustrate specimens collected while following Darwin’s famous voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.
Other exhibitors include the National Museum of Wales (with their exhibition on the work of the 19th Century geologist Henry de la Beche), the British Antarctic Survey, the Isle of Wight Museum and the National Oceanography Centre’s Research Vessel ‘Callista’ which will be moored in the Cobb.
Scientific experts on hand to answer questions, discuss ideas and identify fossils include the Geologists’ Association ‘Rockwatch’, the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Team, and specialists from leading scientific institutions and universities.
At the heart of the Festival is the Jurassic Coast, world famous for its geology and fossils and for its unparalleled role in the birth of earth science. The Festival lets us look at 200 million years of the earth’s history offering insights into our contemporary understanding of evolution and the natural sciences.
The Festival will also see the film preview of the Arts Institute at Bournemouth Lyme Regis film project which has encouraged university and college students to capture images of Lyme Regis on screen.
Events will be held in Lyme Regis and in the neighboring Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre. UNESCO in Paris are key partners in Evolution Rocks! and the UK National Commission will be holding their 2009 World Heritage Education Conference in Lyme Regis over 20th and 21st May and culminating in a Youth Summit on Friday 22nd. As well as attracting educationalists from other UK World Heritage Sites, the Conference will include students from twelve UNESCO linked Schools throughout the UK and Bermuda.