{"id":261946,"date":"2026-05-07T12:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261946\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T12:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:40:08","slug":"orlando-science-center-mess-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261946\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Science Center Mess Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re planning on making a big mess at Orlando Science Center<\/a> this weekend, and they\u2019re planning on making it educational.<\/p>\n

The stage is set for the eighth edition of Mess Fest<\/a>, two days of sloppy experiments. The event has been known for big foamy outdoor explosions and the smashing of watermelons, sort of nerdy Gallagher<\/a> style. But there are fresh hands-on activities planned as well, said Zachary Mailhot, science programming specialist at the Loch Haven Park museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great blend of our old favorites, tried and true activities, as well as a few new experiments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Making its Mess Fest debut is wiggly paint, a digital 3-D painting simulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re painting on three canvasses at once that are slightly undulating, so it creates like a little wiggly painting,\u201d Mailhot said. \u201cYou can\u2019t be pixel-perfect, so it kind of lets the artists be a little free. You\u2019re able to take those gifs home as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on the artistic side are scribble bots, which are \u2013 small robots with markers for legs. They are powered to wobble around on paper \u2013 constrained by box walls \u2013 to produce a piece of art.<\/p>\n

More dramatic are events such as the splatpult (paint-covered balls plus slingshots), the giant pendulum painting, alka-rockets and Will It Shatter, where vegetables and plants are frozen with liquid nitrogen and given the giant hammer treatment.<\/p>\n

\"BLOWINGA tall plume of foam is the result of a Mess Fest experiment that will be demonstrated multiple time during the 2-day event this weekend. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

A big crowd pleaser have been the foam explosions erupting on upper-level terrace of the science center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking into the physics behind all of these different experiments. That one we\u2019re learning about states of matter,\u201d Mailhot said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nitrogen is very, very cold, so much so that it is condensed down into a liquid when it normally exists in our atmosphere as a gas,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then we\u2019re going to be able to rapidly boil it, changing that state of matter into a gas, and the bubbles are capturing that gas for you to see just how quickly it\u2019s expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dramatic end effect, aided by big trash barrels, is a tall flume, maybe 20 feet high, and a few seconds of suds showering down on a science center employee. This demonstration will happen three times on both days of the event.<\/p>\n

Hey, it\u2019s May! How Orlando attractions are gearing up for summer 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Visitors can opt to stay totally clean at Mess Fest, no ponchos required.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you show up to Mess Fest in your Sunday best, there are still some activities that are messy and things, but you can see it right up on the screen right there,\u201d Mailhot said.<\/p>\n

Universal Orlando\u2019s Horror Make-Up Show closing for revisions<\/a><\/p>\n

But maybe there\u2019s something to be said about getting into the thick of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like allowing children to do the things that they\u2019re typically told \u2018no\u2019 for really unleashes something,\u201d Mailhot said.<\/p>\n

Mess Fest is included with regular admission to the science center, all of which is available to visitors during the event. Hours of operation each day are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, go to OSC.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re planning on making a big mess at Orlando Science Center this weekend, and they\u2019re planning on making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,104,28,29,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,14291,554,109,76687,76688,76689,2411,106,1316,107],"class_list":["post-261946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-parenting-and-family","tag-science","tag-social","tag-social-entertainment","tag-social-theme-parks","tag-social-travel","tag-theme-parks","tag-things-to-do","tag-tourism","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}