The greatest scientific party in the world

We are now on the cusp of the 7th Starmus Festival, an amazing and unique celebration of science and music. I hope to see many of you there, in Bratislava, Slovakia, from May 12-17.

Starmus, which combines the words stars and music, is the creation of director Garik Israelian, a Canary Islands astronomer and expert on black holes, exoplanets and many other topics. He established the festival, which debuted in 2011, in partnership with his friend Brian Mayan astrophysicist who also happens to have a very good day job as founder and guitarist of the rock band Queen.

This year's theme is our planet Earth and how we will take care of it. I would be proud to be a speaker again at Starmus, serving as an on-stage host, and participating in activities as a member of the Starmus Board of Directors alongside Garrick, Brian, Richard Dawkins, Jane Goodall, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Peter Gabriel, Jill Tarter, and Tony Fadell.

Featuring a unique combination of amazing speakers, concerts, star party and astrophoto school, Starmus will kick off with an amazing concert in the city of Bratislava, located just a short distance from Vienna, Austria. Our good friend Jean-Michel Jarre, the electronic musician famous for organizing the biggest concert in the world, will grace us with an amazing show, co-hosted by Brian May. That will get things started, and then we'll kick things off with a great lineup of speakers. The lineup will be full of space explorers and Nobel Prize winners.

Speakers will include anthropologist Jane Goodall, astrophysicist Martin Rees, physicist Kip Thorne, musician Laurie Anderson, climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe, iPod inventor Tony Fadell, physicist Brian Greene, astrophysicist Michel Mayor, astronaut Chris Hadfield, physicist Astronomer Scott Hubbard, astrophysicist George Smoot, astronaut. Garrett Reisman, computer scientist Bernhard Schölkopf, astrophysicist Carol Mundell, climate scientist Chris Rapley, astrophysicist Joel Parker, planetary scientist Patrick Michel, and planetary scientist Dante Lauretta.

In addition to Jean-Michel and Brian, the musical stars include Robin Ince, The Offspring, Tony Hadley, Laurie Anderson, Derek Sherinian, Leah Holloran, Simon Phillips, Nmra, Brian Malo and Paul Franklin.

Our sponsors this year are ESET, a global security company, along with Vub Banka, Omega Watches and Kia.

My colleagues Michael Bakic, Martin Ratcliffe and Damian Petch will establish a school for astrophotography before the main Starmus. We will hold a star party for the people of Starmus at Devin Castle, which was built on the 9th^y a century. It's a stunning location for a star party!

I highly encourage you to attend if you can. There are actually moments in Starmus where you think to yourself, “Is this really happening???” If you can't make it this time, making it to Starmus will definitely be in your future plans. I will provide a full report on the festival Astronomy The magazine is also a sponsoring partner.

You can find out complete information about Starmus at starmus.comRegister and get ready to attend an event that will change your life.

David J. Escher is an editor Astronomy magazine, author of 26 books on science and history, and board member of Starmus Fetsival and Lowell Observatory.