The largest scientific and musical festival in Central Asia, IQ BBQ, has revealed its full program

The festival space features 4 thematic lecture halls — MAIN STAGE, SCIENCE, ART, and AI, a robot exhibition, sports and children’s zones, food courts, a fair, and activities from partners.

Lecture Hall: MAIN STAGE. From Mars to Artificial Intelligence

At the MAIN STAGE lecture hall, festival guests will be able to learn: what is the meaning of our lives, why knowledge of chemistry will help us in the future, how to stop aging, when humanity will be able to settle on Mars, and much more.

On the main stage of the festival, astrophysicist from the USA Lawrence Krauss, chemist-TikToker and winner of the "100 New Faces of Kazakhstan" project Ulan Usenov, writer, science journalist, and destroyer of biological myths Aleksandr Panchin, Kazakh cosmonaut Aidin Aimbetov, and Director for Artificial Intelligence Development at Yandex — Aleksandr Krainov will perform.

Lecture Hall: SCIENCE. From Genetics to Astrophotography

How does the history of communication with Neanderthals affect our modernity? How is AI applied in robotics? What does an astrophotographer do? And how do lasers help research future materials for energy and medicine? You will find out together with the speakers of this block — Mikhail Gelfand, Denis Paryshev, Azamat Eshmukhamedov and many others within the framework of the SCIENCE lecture hall.

Lecture Hall: ART. Will artificial intelligence replace artists?

How to understand modern art? How does digital art evolve from pixels to neural networks? What is the history of modern Kazakh music? At the ART lecture hall, you can figure out these questions together with Dmitry Gutov, Polina Egarmina, Anvar Musrepov, and Nikita Zabelin and Violetta Telmanova.

The largest conference on AI and ML

Especially for IT professionals, Yandex Qazaqstan has organized a track on artificial intelligence, where experts on the topic will talk about the possibilities of its application. Listening to speeches will be interesting to everyone who works with AI, from copywriters and designers to scientists and developers.

The conference will be attended by the head of the IT community of Uzbekistan Shavkat Karimov, the head of the IT company Kolesa Group Khambar Dusaliev, the head of the Laboratory for Big Data Mining at the Institute of Information and Computational Technologies Aleksandr Pak.

Unique robots: from giant manipulators to smart delivery robots

More than 30 robots from different countries of the world will be presented at the festival:

— giant robot manipulator KUKA: an industrial robot known for its high precision and flexibility, performs complex tasks such as assembly and welding at an impressive speed, making it indispensable on modern factories

— Go-playing teacher robots: the robot works on the basis of artificial intelligence and learns in real time, analyzing the opponent's moves and adapting its tactics. It helps players master basic strategic steps, conducts error analysis, and offers alternative moves

— firefighting robot, robot dogs and others.

Guests will be greeted by delivery robots from Yandex Qazaqstan, which have already become popular with many Almaty residents.

Grand concert by Irina Kairatovna and Moldanazar

On the main stage will perform: world-famous group from Kazakhstan Irina Kairatovna, synth-pop group Moldanazar, one of the cult representatives of the Russian electronic underground scene Nikita Zabelin and Peter Termen — popularizer of the world's only contactless musical instrument, the theremin.

Children under 14 years old enter the festival for free

In the children's zone, scientific laboratories will work all day; master classes on robotics, pixel graphics, and pottery; a rocket construction shop where you can design and launch your own rocket, and even more than 10 interactive activities that will clearly show children and adults how the world works.

The largest companies of Kazakhstan will present their pop-up zones at the festival

At the festival, zones of Yandex Qazaqstan, "Marvin", Tele2, "Technodom", "Technofit", "Barney" and Airba, Airba pay, Omoda, Flash up, Alga app will be presented with different activities for all visitors. Thus, in the Yandex Qazaqstan zone, you can find out how machine learning helps preserve the population of wild snow leopards and try yourself in the role of AI, and in the Tele2 zone, you can charge your phone, rest under a large canopy on poufs and comfortable chairs.

IQ BBQ is one of the few festivals in Almaty that will take place in a large-scale location within the city

When: August 24
Where: Almaty, STK stadium

View the full festival program on the IQ BBQ website