The inaugural Electromagnetic Field event took place in 2012 near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire; all 499 tickets were sold out. The festival featured more than 50 speakers, including British physician, academic and science writer Ben Goldacre, a self-described “nerd evangelist”.
The next full-scale Electromagnetic Field event was held in 2014, with more than 1,200 people in attendance and a program of over 100 talks, workshops, and other events, including special events for children under 12. Notable guest speakers included Member of Parliament Tom Watson and popular science author and physicist Simon Singh. The campsite also had 45 “villages” that ran their own events in addition to the main program.
In the years that followed, Electromagnetic Field moved to Loseley Park, Surrey in 2016 and then to Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire. The festival was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but came back in 2022. As of 2024, Electromagnetic Field was still held at Eastnor Castle Deer Park and had an attendance of 2,500.
Electromagnetic Field is a temporary village for geeks, technology enthusiasts, and crafters with camping tents, a power greed and high-speed internet access. Buzzing with activity during the day and lit up by night, it is an open space for curious people to talk about what they love, learn new things, exchange ideas, and collaborate on projects.
Held over a long weekend in May, the program of Electromagnetic Field includes a variety of talks across several stages, exciting workshops, games, music performances, and installations found throughout the camping site. The talks and workshops cover an impressive variety of topics, from electronics to genetic modification, high-energy physics to blacksmithing, computer security to brewing, and reverse engineering to crocheting.
The campsite usually opens on Thursday, giving attendees enough time to arrive at the site, set up camp, and get settled. Talks and workshops start on Friday, lasting until the Sunday evening. Sunday night is filled with performances and other festivities, after which people have until midday on Monday to get some rest and leave the campsite.
During the festival, attendees can set up their own “camps within the camp” called villages. A village is a group of like-minded people, colleagues, friends, or even families that camp together and set up their own events, which can range from talks and workshops to jam sessions. Villages allow people to share ideas, equipment, resources, and space to make the festival experience more enjoyable. However, you don’t have to be part of a village; camping on your own and just visiting some villages is an option, too.
The festival team (which consists entirely of unpaid volunteers, by the way) tries to make the event as accessible as a camping festival in a field can be. EFM provides free professional childcare for children under 12, power, internet access, and a delivery receiving service. All attendees can get a unique conference badge: a full-blown microcontroller with some cool features that can be reprogrammed after the event.
Фото: emfcamp.org
