Artists from all over North America are gathering in Calgary for the Beakerhead festival, an exhibition of art, science and technology marvels of all different kinds.

All of the installations at the festival are brand new and include LED dance parties, a giant dung beetle, a balloon-covered house and all sorts of science and engineering demonstrations.

Jay Ingram, representative of Beakerhead, says the event brings together engineers, scientists and artists to create a city-wide spectacle.

“You can make a dinosaur bone out of chocolate. Those things don’t normally go together, but that’s what we try and do. We have everything from huge installations like a Tesla coil at Fort Calgary and we have small workshops.”

Ingram says a lot of the installations are out in the open and are free to the public, but there are plenty of admission-only events too.

He says that he hopes everyone will brave the colder weather to enjoy what Beakerhead has to offer this year.

“Last year we probably had, all told, 140,000 people that came to various things. This is only our sixth year. It’s a challenge every year, it’s a small staff. It’s just a challenge to get it all up and running and have it work.”

One of the biggest exhibits this year is a pair of giant Tesla coils, designed and built by a group from California. One of the engineers says they are hooked up to a keyboard that users can play, activating the instruments to make sparks crackle between them.

“The kids all seem really excited about it,” says Daniel Moyer. “I’m trying to give them a little explanation of what it is. They are excited about it.”

It’s the first year for Moyer’s group and Beakerhead actually helped pay their way to set up.

“We’re glad to be here,” he says. “It’s always great to interact with the community and kids to get them interested in science and engineering. On the other hand, we spent a lot of time and money building this thing so it doesn’t make senses to keep it languishing in a warehouse. We want to get it out there and get people excited about it.”

Beakerhead runs until Sunday. You can find more about the events on the official website.

(With files from Jordan Kanygin)