Celebrate opening night of San Francisco’s innovative three-month art and music festival, Soundwave, presented by MEDIATE and The Bold Italic. The night features a blend of art, science and sound around this year’s festival theme: challenging audiences to question their perspectives on the present and our hopes and fears about the future. 

Futuristic space rock band Lumerians performs in the piazza, musician Matt Baldwin will play amongst the fish in the coral reef, and guitarist Danny Paul Grody will play the skies of the Aurora Borealis in a mini-planetarium, with DJ Tristes Tropiques and DJ Nihar spinning the night away with disco house/post-punk tunes. Select Soundwave artists will present interactive demonstrations that explore future experiences of sound and technology, including The Cellar Ensemble’s sound/light oracle instrument, Jay Kreimer’s empathic facial responder and instruments, Drew Detweiler’s Lumisketch, and Stephen Hurrel’s live sounds of the moving Earth. Plus, Apocalypse Cakes author Shannon O’Malley will serve samples and read from her guide to doomsday desserts. 

Must be age 21+ to attend NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences. Tickets are $12, $10 for Academy members.

Event Schedule

6-8pm Rainforests of the World (Last entry at 7:45pm)

6-9pm Science Love Stories/ Project Lab

6-10pm Beneath & Beyond by Stephen Hurrel/ Forum Theater East (2nd Floor)

6-10pm Doomsday Dessert Samples by Shannon O’Malley/ Swamp

6-10pm Haceteria DJs Tristes Tropiques & Nihar/ East Pavilion

6-10pm Earthquake- New Exhibit!/ West Pavilion

6-10pm Soundwave Cocktail Tour/ Bars Throughout

6:30-10pm Hydrophonium by Danishta Rivero, Empathic Sounding by Jay Kreimer, and Seer Instrument by Cellar Ensemble/ African Hall

6:30pm Earth Update/ Planetarium

7-9pm Music by Danny Paul Grody in the Mini Dome with Aurora Borealis Visuals/ Forum Theater West (2nd Floor)

7:30 & 8:30pm Earthquake: Evidence of a Restless Planet/ Planetarium

8-8:45pm Performance by Matt Baldwin/ Coral Reef

8-10pm Lumisketch by Drew Detweiler & Produced by Lyes Belhocine/ Piazza

9pm Lumerians/ Piazza