Cambridge Festival

Explore the future at the 2025 Cambridge Festival – a 17-day celebration of innovation and discovery.

The Cambridge Festival returns on 19 March 2025 for a dynamic 17-day showcase, offering nearly 400 mostly free events that explore the future of society, health, the environment, and discovery.
Running until 4 April, the festival invites people of all ages to engage with groundbreaking research, provocative ideas, and cutting-edge innovations at venues across the city.
As one of the largest festivals of its kind in the UK, the Cambridge Festival offers a diverse mix of talks, debates, demonstrations, performances, workshops, and interactive events, all curated by the University of Cambridge. An exciting selection of events is also available for families and young audiences.
This year, visitors will have the chance to explore topics such as:
• A Vision of 2125: What will life look like in the year 2125? One unique exhibition will let visitors experience science through the eyes of future generations.
• Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare: Delve into the future of healthcare as AI and data science are transforming medical practices. The talk “Tomorrow’s Health Today” on 27 March will reveal how AI is revolutionising early disease screening and prevention.
• Corporate Psychopaths and Financial Crises: Dr Clive Boddy explores the role of corporate psychopaths in the 2008 financial crash in his talk, “Would corporate psychopaths bankrupt the world economy for a bonus?” (22 March).
• Humanoid Robots: Meet Furhat, the conversational robot (22 March), and explore the future of robotics through hands-on workshops like “Navigating the Physical World” (29 March).
Exciting and thought-provoking events will also dive into the realms of art, society, and politics. Attendees can join in the creative workshop “Tearing Up Money” (22-29 March), where participants tear up Venezuelan banknotes to create art, reflecting on the country’s economic struggles. The thought-provoking exhibition “Magma Rising” (26 February – 22 April) brings the dynamic world of Icelandic volcanoes to life through a multi-sensory exploration of the earth’s inner workings.
Other highlights include talks on the science of longevity through studying whales (3 April), explorations of Jane Austen’s relevance today (26 March), and intimate discussions with journalists on the safety of storytellers in war zones (28 March).