The Cosmic Shambles Forest is part science festival, part book club, part comedy club, part music gig, part interactive museum, and all wonder. Whether you come to laugh, to learn, to listen, or simply to get unexpectedly inquisitive about crabs, it’s a place built for the curious and the creatively inclined.
Headlining the 2026 Cosmic Shambles Forest is Helen Sharman CMG OBE, who made history by becoming the first British astronaut and first Brit to travel to space aged just 27. Helen is also a chemist, science communicator and space advocate. More than three decades on, Helen remains one of the most remarkable and inspirational figures in British scientific history, a reminder that curiosity, determination, and a willingness to leap into the unknown can take you, quite literally, to the stars.
At the heart of the Forest, the revamped Apollo Stage returns as the main performance space, a full programme of live talks, podcasts, panels, music, family events, late-night screenings and more. Topics will range as wildly as ever: climate science, neurodiversity, particle physics, the ocean, space exploration, science fiction, history, psychology, and beyond.
New for 2026, the Satellite Stage brings a second, more intimate venue to the Forest. Designed for deeper engagement, Q&A sessions, workshops, smaller conversations, and close encounters with brilliant minds, it’s the place to really lean in. Expect the kind of discussions that carry on long after the session ends.
Museum Street is back too, and busier than ever. Interactive exhibits, pop-up mini-museums, discovery sheds, hands-on experiments, and curious things around every corner. This is the part of the Forest where you might start by looking at a rock and end up with a new understanding of plate tectonics.
Returning by enormous popular demand is The Crab Museum, last year’s breakout smash hit and one of the most talked-about corners of the entire festival. It’s exactly what it sounds like, and somehow even better than you’d expect.
Joining Museum Street for 2026 are some brilliant new additions: the National Space Centre brings its expertise in all things beyond the atmosphere; The SAW Trust arrives with science and art fused in unexpected ways; Pumpkins Etc will give you the chance to tend to your own sustainable garden, while Braintastic! brings interactive neuroscience to all ages.
On the live podcast front, alongside Cosmic Shambles staples Book Shambles, Science Shambles, and An Uncanny Hour, The History Aunties offer their unmistakable blend of history, warmth, and wit; and New Scientist: The World, The Universe and Us gives us a window into the biggest ideas in contemporary science. In the Forest, audiences can also visit the Shambles Shop and Bookshop, grab a drink or a bite to eat, sit down and digest the wonder (and the muffins).
The Cosmic Shambles Forest keeps going after dark. The Woodland Cinema returns with various screenings, but Latitude’s 20th anniversary deserves a proper celebration, and the Cosmic Shambles Forest will play its part from the very first night. Special opening events are being planned to mark the occasion, with full details to be announced soon, plus some new and exciting evening shows throughout the festival blending science, music and much more. Expect the unexpected. There will almost certainly be surprises.
The Cosmic Shambles spirit doesn’t stay contained within the Forest. Josie Long, multi-award-winning comedian, activist, filmmaker and co-host of Robin Ince’s Book Shambles podcast, appears in the Comedy Arena presented by TK Maxx. The beloved Nine Lessons returns to The Listening Post, and the epic Ocean Songs is set to grace The Waterfront stage.
Your full line up…
The Cosmic Shambles Forest of Science and Culture 2026 features:
Helen Sharman CMG OBE — The first British Astronaut, chemist and science communicator. Flew to the Mir space station to conduct experiments in space in 1991 after being selected from over 13,000 applicants.
Robin Ince — Multi-award-winning comedian, author, broadcaster, co-creator of The Infinite Monkey Cage and co-founder of The Cosmic Shambles Network. Author of Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal (2025).
Reece Shearsmith — Co-creator of The League of Gentlemen and Inside No. 9. A master of horror, humour and the uncanny.
Professor Helen Czerski — Physicist, oceanographer, author of Blue Machine and one of the UK’s most beloved science broadcasters.
Professor Kevin Fong — Anaesthetist, space medicine expert, and presenter of 13 Minutes to the Moon.
Professor Chris Jackson — Geoscientist, broadcaster and former Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer.
Professor Jon Butterworth — Particle physicist at University College London, author and former member of the ATLAS experiment at CERN.
Professor Navneet Kapur — Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry at the University of Manchester and a leading expert on mental health and suicide prevention.
Natalie Haynes — Classicist, novelist, comedian and host of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics on BBC Radio 4. Author of A Thousand Ships, Pandora’s Jar, Stone Blind and Divine Might.
Josie Long — Multi-award-winning comedian, writer, filmmaker, activist and co-host of Book Shambles. Three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, the first woman to achieve this distinction.
Robert Llewellyn — Actor (Kryten in Red Dwarf), former presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, and founder of Everything Electric — the world’s leading YouTube channel on clean energy and EVs.
Dr Ami Sawran — Vet and communicator specialising in llama and alpaca care.
Dr Andre Rowe — Palaeontologist, T. rex expert, and advocate for diversity in STEM.
Bec Hill — Comedian, flipchart fanatic, podcaster and livewire performer known for her brilliantly inventive live shows.
Ben Moor — Performer, comedian and actor.
Charlotte Carpenter — Singer-songwriter and musician with a knack for making for making the apocalyptic into pop magic.
Dr Clara Nellist — CERN particle physicist and one of the most engaging physics communicators working today.
Ginny Smith — Science writer, presenter and author who specialises in revealing the fascinating nature of the brain and human behaviour to all ages.
Dr Hannah Wakeford — Astrophysicist specialising in exoplanet atmospheres and one of the scientists behind the James Webb Space Telescope.
Dr Larissa Palethorpe — Researcher and astronomer working on a project specialising in the characterisation of small exoplanets.
Miranda Lowe — Principal Curator of Crustacea at the Natural History Museum and a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in science.
Dr Roma Agrawal MBE — Structural engineer, author of Built and Nuts and Bolts, and one of the engineers behind The Shard.
Dr Sammie Buzzard — Climate scientist specialising in the polar ice sheets and what their future means for all of us.
John-Luke Roberts — Award-winning comedian known for his wildly surreal, utterly original and frequently alarming live performances.
Joanna Neary — Comedian, writer, puppeteer and creator of cult character Celia in Wife on Earth.
Subhadra Das — Historian of science, broadcaster and expert on the legacy of racism in science and the politics of knowledge.
Dr Suze Kundu — Nanochemist, broadcaster and science communicator with a gift for making the microscopic feel massive.
Steve Pretty — Musician and podcast host of The Origin of the Pieces — where music and science meet in unexpected and wonderful ways.
Sonny Tennet — Performer, singer, songwriter and a burgeoning voice in the UK music scene.
Trent Burton — Producer, director and co-founder of The Cosmic Shambles Network.
Plus many more to be announced — and a few surprises that won’t be announced at all.
