What changes on 30 September
The price table gives no clock time, only two windows: "Regular — 16 August to 30 September 2026" and "Final — from 1 October 2026". Book on 30 September and you still pay the lower price. The step is the same for both pass types: 350 to 400 euros and 200 to 250 euros. It is already the second rise of that size, since the Early Bird tier ran at 300 and 150 euros until 15 August. All these figures are net: the ticket page says IGIC is added at checkout, and the festival publishes no rate.
The closing concert on La Palma: free, but with no address
The programme lists, for 22 October at 19:00, "Space Station Earth — Closing Concert, La Palma", preceded at 15:00 by the "GTC 108-Minute Panel Discussion". On the festival page the note reads "Open to the public, subject to venue capacity" — with no mention of money. It is the ticket page that is explicit: the Science Camp and the closing concert are open to the public at no charge. Everything else is missing — no venue, no capacity figure, no registration, no admission time, no indication of who plays. The local paper El Time reported on 9 June 2026 on a panel at the Gran Telescopio Canarias and the closing concert, without naming a place; the island portal visitlapalma.es names none either.
What Starmus actually is
Starmus was founded in the Canary Islands in 2011 by the astrophysicist Garik Israelian and the Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May; starmus.com still lists both as co-founders. The principle is the mix of lectures by Nobel laureates, astronauts and researchers with concerts. After its first Canarian years it moved abroad — El Time names Norway, Armenia and Slovakia — and returned to La Palma in 2025. Since 2016 Starmus has awarded the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, per its own medal page to Hans Zimmer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian May, Jane Goodall and David Attenborough among others, in most editions to several people at once.
The names: what is confirmed and what is not
On 19 September the artists page lists Brian May, Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Rick Wakeman and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Las Palmas. Wakeman performs the world premiere of "Echoes from Black Holes" at the Pirámide de Arona on 18 October, composed exclusively for Starmus VIII and performed only once, the festival writes. The speaker list includes Geoffrey Hinton, May-Britt Moser, Kip Thorne, the Artemis II crew of Glover, Wiseman and Hansen, and Christiana Figueres. On the medals the ground is thinner: Canarian media report that Brian Cox will receive the 2026 Stephen Hawking Medal on 17 October and Figueres the first Jane Goodall Earth Medal — but the medal page names no 2026 recipients, and Cox is not on the speaker list. What is certain is that starmus.com calls the Goodall medal "a new global recognition".
Getting there — and why La Palma is a separate trip
The conference programme runs from 19 to 21 October, 14:00 to 18:00, at the Pirámide de Arona in Playa de las Américas in southern Tenerife. Per the TITSA line index, lines 110 and 111 (Santa Cruz — Costa Adeje) and 112 (Santa Cruz — Los Cristianos) serve the area, and at night line 711 via the South Airport. For the opening concert at the port of Santa Cruz, round-trip transport from the Pirámide is included in the pass — buyers of the 99-euro ticket do not get it. La Palma is another island: Fred. Olsen Express publishes 150 minutes for Los Cristianos — Santa Cruz de La Palma, Ferryhopper up to four crossings a day; Binter Canarias and CanaryFly serve the island, whose airport lies eight kilometres south of the capital. On accommodation Starmus is silent.