The award recipients (chosen by Hawking himself) were composer Hans Zimmer, physicist Jim Al-Khalili and the science documentary Particle Fever.

The Stephen Hawking Medal award winners were Neil deGrasse Tyson (science writing), Jean-Michel Jarre (music and arts) and The Big Bang Theory (films).

The Stephen Hawking Medal was awarded to Elon Musk, Buzz Aldrin, Brian Eno and the documentary Apollo 11, screened during the festival for the first time in Europe.

[15] A concert on the first day featured performances by Jean-Michel Jarre and Brian May, light and laser displays, and a drone ballet for an audience of 100,000 by the SNP bridge.

[17] Some famous expert speakers of the festival programme were anthropologist Jane Goodall, Nobel Prize winners Michel Mayor, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Kip Thorne, and former astronauts Charlie Duke, Chris Hadfield, Kathryn Thornton and Garrett Reisman.

[18] The Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication was awarded to Laurie Anderson, Christopher Nolan, David Attenborough and Sylvia Earle.