Finally.

A festival that doesn’t involve drunk hipsters swaying to music by bands with weird names. A festival that readily dispenses knowledge to the young, the old and the geeky. A festival that simply doesn’t discriminate if you don’t know said weird band names.

Ladies and gentlemen, the one-north Festival.

Now before you go all: “Sponsored content!” on us, relax, take a breather and a chill pill. We aren’t even saying this is not. What we are actually saying is: “This is actually useful stuff for you and you can thank us for inviting you to this festival later.”

Organised and hosted by A*STAR and JTC, the festival – which happens from Aug 5 to 6 –brings together companies within the 200-hectare one-north community. Usual suspects include the likes of Canon, Walt Disney, FOX Networks Group and P&G.

Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

For photographers

Since we are in the mood for ethics and professionalism nowadays, we guess it’s the best for you and your camera to attend this talk by Canon Singapore.

Over there, you get to listen to Alvin Foo, head of Canon Imaging Academy, as he speaks of his experience as a professional photographer and how he harnesses the power of photography with integrity. Looking for some freebies? He might throw in some tips and tricks for you to, one day, emulate his success.

For parents with kids 

How to get into that famous primary school? How to ace the PSLE? Is tuition necessary? How do you get into your child’s teachers’ good books?

You will absolutely find no answers to such questions here. Instead, find out why your kid is behaving like a kid and how a woman’s health and well-being may influence her future children, way before she even gets pregnant.

Oh and if you are allergic to something, know that allergies can be as minor as a runny nose or as serious as death. Best to hear it from the experts from A*STAR and National University Hospital as they talk about the origins of some allergies.

Speaking of allergies, get the ultimate question answered at the Head & ShouldersTM Shampoo Talk by P&G: namely why is the shampoo called Head & ShouldersTM. Joking. You will learn more root causes of dandruff instead.

Kids can also learn a little more about neuroscience (the study about the brain) through talks, videos, games and experiments or experience how Science & Art collide workshops, hosted by students from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

For movie buffs

one-north is home to media conglomerates like Walt Disney, Fox Networks Group and Infinite Studios. Probably the best chance to snoop around and find out how the experts make Zoe Tay sound so sexy and learn the trade secrets behind a “live transmission” environment.

Might as well do all these. Since not everyone looks like Zoe Tay.

Speaking of which, who actually watches television nowadays? Especially when you have stuff like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and etc.

Join Discovery’s Executive Producer, Emile Guertin, in a talk that will make you question your loyalty to television and also how Discovery is changing its game in a world of Internet stars to disrupt the “digital disruptors”.

For gamers

This might be the typical convo between parent and child -

Kid: I want to be a game developer.

Mum: Sure.

Kid: REALLY!?

Mum: Come back when you have 11 A1s.

Kid: But I don’t even have that many subjects.

Mum: Thanks for answering your own question.

Now it’s the perfect time to prove them wrong and make an even bigger hit than Pokemon Go.

Over at the Game Solutions Centre, you get to hear from the horse’s mouth how it was like to develop a game from scratch. Drag your parents along and they’d probably be surprised that there’s actually a career and training path as a game developer.

For health-conscious folks

Is white rice the ultimate sin? Is it worse than a can of coke? Find the answer here at Food Nation, hosted by A*STAR’s Clinical Nutrition Research Centre, where researchers talk about food, lifestyle choices and general well-being.

There’re also games that train your brain (game developers FTW. Pay attention, parents). Such games use scientifically-designed cognitive methods to stimulate the brain and measure your brain signals as you improve your memory and other cognitive functions.

For geeks

Why head to Comic Con in San Diego when you can satiate your geekiest dream here?

Okay.

There aren’t no Avengers or celebrities.

BUT.

There’s an invisibility cloak.

Okay. It’s more invisible wall than cloak (since it’s made up of glass blocks), so better keep your Harry Potter costume. Regardless, it’s high time you learn the science behind it. We heard that it’s got to do with physics.

But what do we know? Better to hear it from the experts from Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Wait. There’s more!

Fancy a firm handshake with OSCAR the robotic arm*? Here’s the chance for all you introverts to practise. Learn when to shake and when to let go ya?

(*Robotic arm created using open source – Open Bionics.)

Sign ups are happening now over at their main site.

This sponsored post fuels Mothership.sg writers to get A*STARs for their PSLE.