Tenerife, Spain

On Tenerife will be held the Gagarin festival

Tenerife next spring will be the venue for the Starmus festival – a commemorative event devoted to the first flight of Yuri Gagarin into space. In 2011 will be celebrated the half-century jubilee of the flight. Festival on Tenerife in honor of Gagarin is scheduled for March 21-26, as reported by RIA Novosti.

Festival in honor of Gagarin on Tenerife has found support from a number of famous astronauts. The idea of the festival was supported by the pioneers of space exploration: Alexei Leonov (first man in the outer space), Valentina Tereshkova (first woman cosmonaut), the first man on the moon - NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin and others.

Starmus Festival is a music festival. On its stage is planned the show of the legendary electronic group Tangerine Dream, as well as a former member of Queen Brian May. Also at the festival on Tenerife are expected representatives of electronic music scene, among them are Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Jean-Michel Jarre. The presenter of the festival will be famous American actor Tom Hanks.

As expected, the festival will bring together on Tenerife not only stars of music, but the astronauts, businessmen and actors, whose activities are somehow related to space technology. Among the festival guests are expected Virgin's CEO and creator of commercial flights into space, Richard Branson, as well as one of the founders of Google Sergey Brin.

One of the venues for the Starmus festival will be the largest telescope on the Canary Islands. The building, which houses the Canary Telescope, will host a conference of astrophysicists. It will last for 108 minutes - exactly as much lasted the first flight by Yuri Gagarin. Canary Telescope is among the largest facilities of its kind in the world. On its creation has been spent 179 million euros. The mirror of the telescope has the diameter of 10 meters. Telescope itself is located in the mountains at an altitude of 2500 meters.

Now on the official site www.starmus.com you can get a special offer. Everyone who registers as a member until 31 December 2010 will receive a discount of 100 euros and a free invitation to a star party. The invitation is valid only when booking of a hotel room on Tenerife.

Date: 17/12/2010