Booking opens in just under two weeks soon for the twelfth annual Cambridge Festival of Ideas – but with hundreds of events to choose from it could take you that long to plan your visits.
The sprawling festival takes place over more than 50 venues across a fortnight, kicking off on October 14 and running until October 27, and taking in a whopping 270 – mostly free – events.
Bookings open at 11am on Monday, September 23, but with such a packed programme we recommend taking a look through the range of talks, exhibitions, film screenings, and hands-on activities now to avoid missing out.
The eclectic festival is centred around a theme of change, but takes in everything from changing attitudes to the pineapple to new uses for historical instruments like the harpsichord and whether artificial intelligence could replace lawyers.
You can browse the entire programme on the Cambridge Festival of Ideas website, and we’ve highlighted some top tips below:
- Hate speech, xenophobia and trolls – philosopher Rae Langton and classicist Mary Beard join journalists to discuss online hate speech
- Caroline Criado-Perez is interviewed by Professor Ann Copestake on data bias in a world designed for men
- Ed Miliband and Dr Emily Shuckburgh in conversation about environmental justice
- a series of events celebrating Stonewall at 50, including film screenings and panel discussions with international experts on the riots and LGBTQ+ rights today
- Rethinking drug addiction – the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams hosts a debate on safer drug use and drug consumption rooms
- Charles Saumarez-Smith on the transformation of the museum, drawing on his experience at the V & A, National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery and as Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts
- Yoko Ono: Looking for… series – The first Cambridge exhibition of Yoko Ono’s paintings on the themes of violence and healing, a screening of the 1969 film RAPE, directed by Yoko Ono and John Lennon and a talk by curator Gabriella Daris on the way Ono’s work resonates with the increasing complexity of today’s world.
- MP David Lammy in conversation with journalist Gillian Joseph
- a special live edition of the popular podcast Talking Politics as the clock ticks down on Brexit
- family days at Kettles Yard art gallery and the Polar Museum
- build a Day of the Dead altar at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
