Like many family-oriented museums and educational spaces up and down the UK, Cardiff Bay’s Techniquest has gotten in on the ‘adults only’ idea: regular evening events where grown-ups can indulge their inner child without actual children getting in the way. For Valentine’s Day week this year, Techniquest’s version, branded as After Hours or Adult Lates, gets a special V-Day edition, ‘Love On The Brain’.
Presented as an opportunity for parents and non-parents to do something different to your standard restaurant, cinema, bar or theatre night out, ‘Love On The Brain’ is fully booked, and certainly succeeds in its aim to appeal to the alternative ‘date night’ experience-seekers, with plenty of couples (and maybe third and fourth wheelers) wandering around the science-based learning centre at leisure this evening.
While mostly informal and unstructured, there is a programme on offer. In the Show Portal, Star Tours every half hour (the only event where pre-booking is essential), offering an “immersive 360-degree Planetarium” experience for stargazers – textbook romance. In the Retro area, where most of Techniquest’s older (read: nostalgic) activities remain, there’s a set of live acoustic love songs, while the Technicolour Choir take the musical reigns halfway through the night on the wooden stairs, belting out show tunes and a jukebox mix of pop love songs while decked out in glitter and sequins.
Rounding out the night’s casual activities are crosswords in the Learning Hub and a Hands-On Science station from SparkLab Cymru, where guests can do some guided experiments tailored around love hearts and penning secret notes. The educational highlight, however, is Cardiff University’s Professor Bob Snowden’s lecture on ‘Measuring sexual attraction’, a 25-minute dive into what makes humans attracted to whatever they’re attracted to. It’s a surprisingly comprehensive and accessibly jargon-free overview of a complex, often ambiguous area connecting psychology and biology. The audience, clearly engaged, threw plenty of questions at Bob afterwards, who was patient, honest and considered in his answers.
To feed the stomach as well as the mind, beef chilli nachos (veggie and vegan options also available) and ‘dirty doughnut’ boxes with a healthily unhealthy topping selection make for hearty sharing dishes; a pop-up bar and complimentary glasses of fizz on arrival complete the menu. I will say – unfortunately persistent for Techniquest – technical issues meant many exhibits weren’t functioning as well as they should have, but what the hardware lets you down on the staff more than make up for in their enthusiasm and helpfulness. Overall, After Hours provides the chilled-out, gently stimulating atmosphere you’d hope for, and, best of all, without a child in sight.
Love On The Brain, Techniquest, Cardiff Bay, Thurs 15 Feb
words HANNAH COLLINS
