Teknofest Istanbul Aerospace and Technology Festival was held at Istanbul Ataturk Airport between September 17 and 22, 2019.
Unlike Marmaris, a sunny town on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, Istanbul was overcast and rainy on the Fridayvisited the festival. While that prevented some of the impressive air shows that wowed students on the other days of the festival, Teknofest was going full throttle despite the uncooperative weather.
Teknofest was set up in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, no longer open to passenger traffic. School children bussed in from Istanbul and its environs curiously explored the grounded planes, the wind tunnel, the virtual reality stands as Teknofest’s cheerful theme music blasted “The festival whose feet don’t touch the ground!”
Teknofest was first held in 2018 at the newly built Istanbul Airport, and was moved to Ataturk Airport for 2019 once Istanbul Airport became operational. Last year there were 550,000 visitors; this year, there were more than a million visitors. Atakan Vardar and Alihan Dursun are from Dalaman, southern Turkey, working on a library lending app and website.