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Fantasy Basel 2026 – Call for volunteers

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Dear PlanetS members and associates,

One last time, PlanetS will return to Fantasy Basel – the Swiss Comic-con – and we need you!
Increasing again, the event will reach 100 000m2, and we hope it will surpass last year’s record attendance of 97 000 visitors, of whom we interacted directly with approximately 15 000 visitors.

The festival will be held on Ascension’s week-end from Thursday (holiday) 14th until Saturday 16th of May 2026. For those of you not familiar with the event, it is one of the major Swiss (and European) gathering, for fans of movies, fantasy, science-fiction, video games, high-tech, comics, manga, and – thanks to PlanetS and our numerous partners – fans of science too! You can check the event’s floor plan here.

The Space Sector will again be coordinated by our long-term partner: the Swiss Space Museum (SSM), and with the participation of other partners (Organisations, students associations, institutes, etc.). As usual, PlanetS will focus on experiments and interactive features for the public, and to discuss with it. The Space Stage will be back with a packed schedule of public lectures (and you could be one of those!).

We would like to encourage you to join PlanetS as volunteers at our booth. Such events for the general public are hugely important, as they give us the opportunity to disseminate more about our fascinating research. It’s about bringing our work closer to the audience, who are the people (if a reminder was necessary) enabling our work to be funded thanks to taxes. Everyone – no matter what language you speak, scientist or not – is welcome to be a part of the event. Below you will find more information about the event, details on how to participate, expenses covered, etc.

If you are willing to join, please fill out this form, or if you have further questions, contact thibaut.roger@unibe.ch. Please register as soon as possible, at the latest by Thursday, 2nd of April 11PM59. Volunteer selection will be on a first-come first-served basis.

If you join, we ask you to stay available for a 6h shift at the stand (minus a short break), and you can for the rest of the day, you can freely enjoy the event for 4h. In exchange, the NCCR PlanetS will cover your train travel and a per diem for the food. Please note that we should in principle not cover hotels this year* – we favour daily travel to the location for financial reasons. Additionally, we will provide you with a free exhibitors pass for the event, either for one or three days depending on many of them you join as a volunteer.
(* we will refund hotels if the cost is lower than a train-ticket to your residency place, see dedicated section below for more information).

Last but not least, we currently have two reserved slots on the stage for mini-talks of ±10minutes each (3 mini talks in a slot, followed by Q&A) –> if you would like to take part in the mini-talk with something space-related attractive to the public, please reach out to me at thibaut.roger@unibe.ch to propose your topics (same deadline than registration).

Fantasy Basel is an amazing event to interact with the public in a unique atmosphere and the communication team and myself hope you will be numerous to join us again for this last opportunity to go as the NCCR PlanetS! This is a great opportunity for all of us to show people that real science can be, at least as, if not more, exciting than science fiction.

Impressions from some previous editions:

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Kind regards,

Thibaut Roger, on behalf of the organising team.

 

 

Volunteering at Fantasy Basel PlanetS stand – Some information

1. Basic information

Event

Fantasy Basel, the Swiss Comic-Con, is an established event aimed at a broad audience, spread over 100 000m2 of exhibitions. The topics revolve around science-fiction, fantasy, anime, cosplay, and more. PlanetS has been an integral part of the event for several years now and every time surprises the audience with science, and shows how exciting research is in reality, often as much as science-fiction!

For more information on the event: https://www.fantasybasel.ch

Dates and public opening hours

Venue

Messe Basel, Messeplatz 10, 4005 Basel

There is a direct tram from the Basel train-station, lines 1 or 2, stop “Messeplatz”.

2. Exhibition

The Space Sector this year will spread over 1000m2. NCCR PlanetS will be sharing this large space with the Swiss Space Museum, as well as other partners! PlanetS will bring interactive features such as experiments and crafting activities, as well as giveaways. Swiss Space Museum will bring an exhibition, while the other partners will share the rest of the area with each their own exhibitions or experiments area.

Just like last year, the space sector will also have its own ±150 seats stage! Equipped with a big screen/sound systems and chairs for the public. Each day, the public will be able to see talks, round-tables and panels, and more. Including some mini-talks sessions where YOU can talk.

A first sketch of this year’s Space Sector floor map.

3. Your job

Volunteers are expected to stay at the stand for half a day (6h), either at the welcome desk (to direct people and provide free goodies – posters, postcards, etc.), at one of the experiment stations, near PlanetS related exhibits (e.g., CHEOPS or JUICE models). Note that you will not be stuck to the same activity all day, you are welcome and even encouraged to move from one to the other during your shift(s), rotating with the other volunteers. We also encourage you to organise with the other volunteers to take a couple of small (max 10 minutes) breaks during your shift. You will note that “morning” and “afternoon” shifts are overlapping during 2 hours, to allow for lunch break for everyone.

A note for the stage: for interested volunteers, there are two scheduled mini talks sessions. They consist of 2-3 mini talks (10-15 minutes each followed by Q&A with the public) about planetary sciences, space or astronomy, in English. This is not mandatory at all though. If you want to participate in this, email Thibaut before the registration deadline!!!

More details will follow regarding the activities, to the registered participants.

For this year we will not use the planetarium. Most likely we will have 3 or 4 experiments/stations maximum. Our planetarium will be there but operated by our partners of the Space Eye.

4. Ideas for experiments

We have a few experiments planned already. If you have any ideas of experiments or interactive exhibitions ideas though, please drop us a message as soon as possible – and we can see if this could be accommodated.

5. This is what you get

Volunteers will be refunded for their travel (train), as well as lunch (per diem). They will also receive a PlanetS T-shirt (if they don’t already have one from last editions) to wear during the event, and that they can keep afterward. Bottled water (and usually snacks) will be available for the volunteers.

Please note that this year we won’t – besides some exceptional cases – cover hotel rooms for the night, even if you volunteer multiple days. We favour train return trip on the same day for budget reasons. If you still want to take a hotel, you can reach out to Thibaut.roger@unibe.ch for advice on the most interesting ones around (we have a few years of experience!).
Hotel will be refunded only with the following conditions:
– You do more than one day as volunteer (please wait for confirmation for your days as volunteers before booking an hotel with no possible cancellation).
– The cost of the hotel night is lower than a train ticket (two-ways) back to your residence place.
– If the hotel cost is higher, we will refund only the equivalent of your train ticket.

You will also be provided with a free ticket for the event, the day of your volunteering, in exchange for 6h of presence at the stand.  This is an exhibitor pass which allow to avoid queue to enter the event. The rest of the day you will be free to enjoy the event! We thus encourage volunteers covering the second shift, to also arrive at 9:00 in the morning if they would like to have the most time to visit the rest of the event. Volunteers covering 2+ days are provided with a 3-days exhibitor pass to the event enabling them to also enjoy the third day of the event for free. You will be able to check out the Fantasy Basel programme at the following address once its made available (currently still 2024 schedule): https://fantasybasel.ch/en/daily-program

If you are willing to join, please fill out this form, or contact thibaut.roger@unibe.ch if you have any questions – you can also ask them in person at the General Assembly in Grindelwald. Please do so as soon as possible, by Thursday the 2nd of April – 11PM59 at the latest.

Based on the interest from previous years, please note that we have a limited budget and number of volunteers who can join. In case there are too many volunteers we will select volunteers on a first come first serve base and might limit volunteering to a single day.

6. Mini-talks

Close to our stand we will have a stage with 150-200 seats, a giant screen, a sound system and 2 dedicated technicians. Besides some talks, some panels and round-tables with some guests, we will have two sessions composed of 2 or 3 mini-talks (10min/talk) in a row, followed by a joint question time.

There is no requirement to give such a mini-talk, but anyone is welcome to volunteer for one. (We discourage reusing the ones from the very last edition, but those from 2 years ago or more are welcome).

As it is for the general public, your talk does not have to be on your research topic or even planetary sciences. It can be more general on elements of astronomy, astrophysics, space/satellite sciences or even science-fiction (if related to science).

Please provide a catchy title for your potential talk, by the registration deadline, directly to Thibaut Roger. It should be catchy for the public, not for other scientists, so don’t hesitate to overdo it! Mini-talks will be selected depending on availability of the stage and presence days, etc. but we so far always managed on previous years to get a slot for everyone interested.

Precise schedule and technical details for stage will be sent in the information e-mail for the volunteers (typically one or two weeks before the event).

7. Additional information

Volunteers will receive, in due time before the event, further information such as the experiments descriptions, stage schedule, etc.

For the duration of the event, we will also create a WhatsApp group that will enable to coordinate our action on the spot, and share again elements that are handy to have on the smartphones, such as the access plans, etc. Please indicate in the signing sheet if you agree to be added to this group, it will not be used for other communication purposes.

If you have any questions in the meantime, on any aspects, don’t hesitate to contact Thibaut Roger who is in charge of coordinating the PlanetS participation to the event: thibaut.roger@unibe.ch, or talk to him directly during the PlanetS General Assembly in Grindelwald.

 

Categories: Internal Newsletter

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