On 14 and 15 September, CERN will throw its doors open wide and invite the public to spend the weekend exploring science. The event will be a unique opportunity to discover the Laboratory’s installations.

On 14 and 15 September, CERN will open its scientific facilities to the public from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Under the banner “Explore the future with us”, everyone is invited to come along to the Open Days to live the CERN experience and meet the men and women working on the technologies and discoveries of today and tomorrow.

As always during the Open Days, the underground experiments and machines will, exceptionally, be accessible to the public. The weekend will be an unmissable opportunity to discuss, explore and have fun with science. The laboratories, workshops and control rooms on the surface will also be open. From theatre performances to proton football and chats over coffee with physicists, the event has the perfect mix of ingredients to take visitors of all ages into the very heart of one of the largest physics laboratories in the world.

Entrance to the nine visit sites will be free and open to everyone. There will be plenty for all age groups to enjoy, with physics shows, demonstrations by firefighters and worksite machinery operators, face-to-face encounters with the LHC robots and escape games on offer to keep the youngest visitors enthralled. The list of activities is available on the Open Days website.

“Education and introducing younger generations to science are key to meeting the challenges of the future,” says CERN’s Director-General, Fabiola Gianotti. “The Open Days are an opportunity to spark new passions, but also to introduce experts and novices of all ages to our machines, the technologies we use and their applications in our daily lives.”

The 2019 Open Days will take place during the second long shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), providing a unique opportunity to discover the major upgrade work that is currently being carried out at CERN in preparation for the LHC restart in 2021. This work aims to improve the LHC’s performance and prepare for the arrival of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which is planned for 2026. During the Open Days, physicists, engineers and technicians will explain all the ins and outs of their work and help visitors to discover the future of particle physics.

Some visit itineraries will carry age restrictions: the underground installations will be accessible only to people over 12 years of age. To ensure that as many people as possible have the chance to explore the underground installations, the number of underground visits per person will be limited to two each day.

Registration will be open from 26 June onwards on the Open Days website. Visitors will also be able to access all the information they need to create their own itinerary and make the most of a unique and unforgettable experience. It is strongly recommended to register online in order to guarantee your place.

The Route de l’Europe and part of the Route de Meyrin will be closed to traffic on both days: visitors are therefore strongly recommended to use public and sustainable transport. Additional buses and trams will run, and a free shuttle service will take visitors to and from the nine visit sites, which are spread out over a large area. Free car parks will be available for motorised vehicles and bicycles. All the necessary measures will be taken to ensure that visitors can enjoy their visit in complete safety. The event will be accessible to people with reduced mobility.

To facilitate access, journalists wishing to participate in the event are invited to register in advance: https://indico.cern.ch/event/820109/ .

Resources:

2019 trailer

2013 Open Days images

2008 Open Days images

Open Days website

Contact details:

press@cern.ch