Major Festivals and Events

Festival fans will be busy all summer. The Cambridge Folk Festival, in July, is one of the most famous folk festivals in the world and attracts thousands of people from near and far to the Cherry Hinton Hall site to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and music; Emmylou Harris, Ry Cooder, Joan Armatrading, Steve Earle and Laura Marling have all graced the stage.

The city’s Arts Picturehouse hosts the Cambridge Film Festival every September, showing an imaginative mix of films, shorts, documentaries and a children’s film festival, plus the chance to follow the River Cam up to Grantchester Meadows to enjoy open-air cinema under the stars.

Spot literary luminaries every spring and winter when the city’s own literary festival Wordfest presents a programme of lively and friendly events across all genres for the entire family.

The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is a seven-week tour-de-force of Elizabethan drama performed in the idyllic and unique settings of Cambridge University’s private gardens, where the audience can picnic on a summer’s evening before enjoying theatre at its best.