BRADFORD will go science mad over the next month as the annual Science Festival is held throughout the whole of October for the first time.

Since it started in 2012, the festival has been held over a few days in October, but after the success of previous festivals organisers decided to stretch the 2014 festivities.

Events kick off tonight with a science-themed pub crawl, and over the month there will be a science fiction film festival at the National Media Museum, children's workshops for thousands of school pupils, live shows and a family fun day.

The pub crawl starts at 7.30pm tonight at the The Sparrow Bier Cafe on North Parade. Crawlers will visit four pubs, each of which will have a science experiment, competitions and a quiz.

The Sci Fi festival is called Days of Fear and Wonder and on various dates throughout the month there will be screenings of five classic films in the museum's Cubby Broccoli cinema. They include horror Village of the Damned, modern classic Moon, the original sci fi film Metropolis, sexy fantasy Barbarella and Hammer's Quatermass and the Pit. Each film will be introduced by an expert talking about the science behind each film. The festival within a festival also features a "punk science" comedy show for adults.

The children’s programme provides eight workshops for schools over a three day period featuring subjects such as Murphy’s Law, Newton’s Third Law, Combustion, Light, and Sneezes, Wheezes and Diseases. The workshops will be attended by over 3,000 pupils from over 40 schools, both local and from around Yorkshire. It will give them the chance to see science communicators from across the country speak and organisers hope it will ignite an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Bradford Science Festival wrangler Tony Holdich said: “We start getting enquiries from schools as early as March wanting to ensure they can book their preferred workshops which shows this is an event that teachers and parents really value.”

On October 11, there will be a number of "hands on" events in the Media Museum including sessions where children will be able to build Lego robots and digital cameras, as well as learning about shadows and photography.

There will also be workshops in the University of Bradford on October 18.

The Festival will culminate in the Family Day held in the City Park on October 25 which will feature among other attractions the Maplin Battlebus, the Chromavan - an experience in pure colour and how it affects you and shapes your life, West Yorkshire Police CSI: Crime Scene Investigations and on centre stage Christeyns, the Colour Museum and, from Science Headquarters, James Boffin, Secret Science Agent will be entertaining the crowds.

On a more serious note, the issue of dementia will be subject of a workshop at the University of Bradford on 20 and 21 where those in attendance will be taught facts about the condition and how to help people who are living with dementia.

For more information on events visit http://bsf.studioofthings.com