The world's largest aviation, space and technology festival opened its doors to visitors Wednesday and will offer an array of air shows, technology competitions, exhibitions and educational activities.
Teknofest, which has welcomed nearly 12 million visitors since its launch in 2018, will be held through Sunday in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.
Organized under the leadership of the Turkish Industry and Technology Ministry, the T3 Foundation, and Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade Inc. (STM), the festival will cover an area of 191,000 square meters (2.06 million square feet) at Şanlıurfa GAP Airport.
Teknofest Southeast will bring together activities for visitors of all ages throughout the five-day event.
The festival will feature air shows by Türkiye's leading aviation and defense platforms, including Solotürk and the Turkish Stars, as well as fighter aircraft.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to see Atak helicopters, platforms such as Hürkuş, Anka, Bayraktar TB2, Bayraktar TB3 and Bayraktar Akıncı, as well as land and naval vehicles.
The program will include concerts, stage performances, exhibitions, educational workshops, simulation areas, a planetarium, science shows, the Teknofest Time Tunnel, displays of domestically developed land, naval and air vehicles, trade fair activities and special first-flight experiences for students.
Teknofest Southeast will feature technology competitions aimed at supporting technological development in critical fields, with teams that advance through the preliminary stages receiving financial and other forms of support.
More than 1.6 million contestants and hundreds of thousands of teams applied to the technology competitions as part of this year's edition. Of more than 730,000 teams that applied, 2,000 advanced to the finals.
Successful contestants will receive more than TL 100 million (over $2 million) in total support.
Applications to this year's Teknofest Technology Competitions came from 99 countries, including the U.S., France, China and Japan.
Eleven new categories were added, including 5G, the Artificial Intelligence and Smart Road Safety Competition, the Technological Applications in Combating Addiction Competition and the Electronic Warfare Competition.
The finals of technology competitions in 14 categories will be held as part of Teknofest Southeast.
These include the Technological Applications in Combating Addiction Competition, organized by the Turkish Green Crescent Society; the Blockchain Competition, organized by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK); the Steel Dome Air Defense Systems Competition and Mobile Satellite Terminal Competition, organized by Aselsan; the Financial Technologies Competition, organized in cooperation with Takasbank and the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT); the HackMasters Southeast Competition, organized by the Cybersecurity Presidency; the International Invention Competition under ISIF, organized by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office; the Mining Technologies Competition, organized by Turkish Gold Inc.; the Architectural and Visual Design Competition, organized by KÜME Foundation; the 3T in Oncology Competition, organized by Cansağlığı; the Agricultural Technologies Competition, organized by Bilişim Vadisi and TÜME; the Teknofest Drone Championship and World Drone Cup, organized by STM; and the Teknofest Robolig Competition, organized by the T3 Foundation.
