A POPULAR festival is returning next month with a different format.

The first of two Brighton Science Festival's being held this year is mainly focused on younger audiences with the first half in half term.

Brighton Science Festival director Richard Robinson said “We’ve moved adults away but we’ve kept popular young adult events too. We were getting exhausted doing kids and adults events in the same month.”

An adult’s edition of the festival is expected to return in September, potentially alongside the British Science Festival which takes in Brighton between the 5th and 9th September.

Mr Robinson said next month’s festival still has a number of events aimed at adults and that parents remain important in showing enthusiasm for science to their children.

This year’s festival features new events including the Festival of the Spoken trio working with stand-up act George Egg.

Mr Robinson said: “It’s unrepeatable, it’s never happened before and will never happen again.”

The festival’s flagship Bright Sparks event will return, taking place at Hove Park School on the 11th and 12th February.

Mr Robinson said: “When I go to Bright Sparks I do have a habit of crying even now, because the presenters work very hard during the day. They have to be able to talk to all ages to make sense to everyone.”

The event features hands on experimentations and science experiments and is aimed at seven to 13-year-olds and their parents.

Mr Robinson said he was especially looking forward to the ‘Exploring Alzheimer’s disease’ show during.

He said this is because nearly every child has an old relative with Alzheimer’s and that he wants them to understand what’s going on.

The show is run by the University of Sussex, with neuroscientists, psychologists and drug discovery teams coming together to create a better understanding of the disease.

The theme of this year’s festival is Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths (STEAM).

The festival will be held between February 11 and 25 at venues across the city including schools.See brightonscience.com for prices and full programme.