POPULAR Dunbar SciFest returns to the town next month – complete with another exciting, jam-packed programme.

SciFest is now in its sixth year and in 2015 the family-friendly festival worked with 149 different organisations, of which 124 delivered 372 individual activities to 10,629 people.

Dee Davison, Dunbar SciFest creator and creative director, was counting down to the event getting under way.

She said: “We are delighted that, despite the gales last year, our fantastic community science festival attracted more than 10,500 visitors to all of the events that took place during our 11-day programme and we’re thrilled that this year we have lots of new exciting events, ranging from our new light show ‘Chain Reaction’, that will be projected onto Torness Power Station, to our EDF Energy science ceilidhs.”

“There are lots of new activities happening at the family weekend and a very exciting programme this year for the adult programme.

“We’re looking forward to seeing two new photographic exhibitions that will be projected onto the front of Dunbar Town House Museum and a new John Muir exhibition that will be on within it. It is really, really exciting.”

This year’s festival kicks off with two different science ceilidhs for families in the Dunmuir Hotel.

On March 4, there is a ceilidh for the whole family, complete with a science twist.

Along with all the familiar favourite dances, from the Gay Gordons to the Flying Scotsman, there will be a chance to think about how the Dunbar community can be improved.

Pupils from the town’s primary school will share a new dance developed to explain the circular economy and how its introduction to product design in Scotland can help reduce how much we throw away.

The next day, there is another ceilidh, which will explore photons in the Dashing White Light Wave, exploring how glowsticks work in the Fluorescent Fling and finding the hidden chemistry in your TV in the Orcadian Strip-the-Optic-Cable!

There are plenty of other events going on as well and from March 4 to 13 there is a chance to see the Chain Reaction light show that is animating the facade of Torness Power Station.

The newly created light show is a series of artistic interpretations of the complex and unseen processes that generate the steam energy that drives the electricity generators in Torness.

The Dunbar SciFest 2016 Family Weekend is March 5-6 (10am-5pm both days) in the John Muir Campus of Dunbar Primary School and the Bleachingfield Centre.

There are plenty of drop-in sessions, workshops and stage shows with storytelling and soft play for the under-fives.

SCI-FUN, the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Science and Technology Roadshow, will take over the Bleachingfield Community Centre with 50 interactive science activities.

A variety of workshops and stage shows will also be delivered within local schools from March 7 to 11, with adult programme evening events from March 9 to 13.

There is also a trio of exhibitions, with the Royal Photographic Society exhibition ‘International Images for Science’ and ‘Light Works’ both projected onto the Dunbar Town House. Inside the building, from March 5 to the end of July, 'An Ingenious Whittler – John Muir the Inventor' exhibition gives people the chance to find out about the amazing machines that John Muir invented to make life easier. For more information, go to www.dunbarscifest.org.uk