KASTELLORIZO – On Kastellorizo this October, you will not have to walk into a laboratory to find science.
You may encounter it on a narrow island street, in a school classroom, at a workshop table, in the middle of a game — or in the sudden question of a child who wants to know why.
For three days, October 16-18, the remote Greek island will become a living laboratory of curiosity as it hosts the 6th Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival – Science Games.
Launched in 2021 by Pantazis Choulis and Eleni Grammatikopoulou, the festival has grown into a distinctive gathering where science, education, and creative thinking meet in an unlikely but remarkably fitting setting: Megisti, a small island at the far eastern edge of Greece.
Its premise is deceptively simple.
Instead of giving people answers, the festival invites them to ask better questions.
And perhaps that is the more difficult challenge.
The 6th Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival – Science Games takes place October 16-18. Photo: Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival
Do we still know how to ask “why”?
A riddle, after all, is more than a puzzle waiting to be solved. At its most meaningful, it captures the moment when we encounter something we do not understand — and choose not to walk away.
We stop.
We look closer.
We question what we think we know. We make a guess. We get it wrong. We try again.
That instinct — the willingness to remain curious in the face of uncertainty — is where science begins.
It is also what gives the Kastellorizo festival its particular character.
On an island far from Greece’s major research centers and university campuses, science steps outside the laboratory and meets the public on its own ground. Children and students, teachers and researchers, residents and visitors are invited into the same conversation.
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotics meet DNA, health, the environment and the ocean. Astronomy meets education. Art and culture enter into dialogue with technology.
And the science is anything but abstract.
The 6th Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival – Science Games takes place October 16-18. Photo: Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival
There are hands-on workshops and experiments, STEM activities, drones, escape rooms, and quizzes. There is stand-up science and programming devoted to artificial intelligence, misinformation and fake news, online safety, cinema and the night sky.
Science is not placed behind glass.
It is meant to be experienced.
Among the distinguished figures taking part in this year’s program are academic and National Technical University of Athens Professor Theodossios P. Tassios; academic and Professor of Pediatrics and Endocrinology George Chrousos; George Chalkiadakis, Professor at the Technical University of Crete; Professor Steven Boyages of the University of Sydney; and internationally recognized puzzle designer Yavuz Dermihan, along with scientists from leading research institutions across Greece.
But Kastellorizo itself is more than a backdrop.
The island is part of the puzzle.
Its geography, history, natural environment and distinctive cultural identity become starting points for exploration. The landscape is not simply something to admire; it becomes something to investigate.
This year, the festival will introduce another element of that connection: the “Riddle Flowers,” a new visual symbol inspired by the island’s remarkable flora.
Even a small plant such as Campanula kastellorizana can become the beginning of a scientific journey.
That idea goes to the heart of what the festival is trying to achieve.
Knowledge does not live only in imposing libraries, sophisticated laboratories or university research centers. Sometimes it begins with a flower.
The 6th Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival – Science Games takes place October 16-18. Photo: Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival
Or a constellation.
A drop of seawater.
An algorithm.
Or a child asking a question that an adult may have stopped asking long ago.
That is why the festival has become an important part of the educational life of Kastellorizo.
In previous years, students have participated in specially designed activities incorporated into their school experience. They do not simply hear about science; they encounter it. Science becomes an experiment. History becomes discovery. Technology becomes play. Learning becomes something tangible — something that can be touched, tested and questioned.
And then the questions travel.
From Kastellorizo to Athens, Patras, Xanthi and Vamvakou in the Parnon mountains, the festival has helped create a growing network of people connected by a remarkably simple impulse: the desire to understand.
Perhaps that is what a science festival should ultimately do.
Not convince us that the world has all the answers.
Quite the opposite.
It should remind us that the world remains full of mysteries — and that curiosity is not something we outgrow. It is one of the most powerful tools we possess for understanding the world around us.
The greatest discoveries rarely begin with certainty.
The poster for the 6th Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival – Science Games which takes place October 16-18. Photo: Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival
They begin with a question.
A child looks at something unfamiliar and asks, “Why?”
A scientist refuses to stop there.
And somewhere between those two moments — between wonder and investigation — discovery begins.
This October, Kastellorizo will once again turn that simple idea into a celebration.
From October 16-18, the island will become a place where science can be played, questioned, explored and shared.
Come for the riddles.
Stay for the questions.
Because the real adventure may not be finding the answer — but learning to love the question that led you there.
More information is available online: https://kastellorizofestival.com/en/home-en-2/.