Cambridge Festival Family Weekend: A Playground of Ideas for All Ages

This March, families are invited to a brilliant day out as the University of Cambridge opens its doors for the vibrant and much-loved Cambridge Festival Family Weekend. Visitors can dive into a whirlwind of ideas, imagination, and hands-on fun designed for children of all ages.

Dates and Venues

Across the weekend of March 28 to 29, venues throughout the city, including libraries, museums, departments, and lecture theatres, will transform into playgrounds of possibility. The University Centre at Granta Place serves as a bustling hub of activity, with many programme highlights running across both days.

Highlights of the Weekend

Step into the Planet Laboratory, an immersive sci-art experience where young world-builders can design their own ecosystems using colour-coded tiles. As overhead cameras scan their creations, planets come alive with sound and light, offering a magical fusion of creativity and climate science.

Nearby, families can participate in Stitch and Code, blending traditional Japanese hitomezashi stitching with modern binary coding. Participants will create unique textile patches that will later form part of the Cambridge Festival Community Quilt, a beautiful symbol of creativity stitched together across the city.

Activities for Every Interest

Throughout the day at the University Centre, time travellers are invited to drop into Writing Time!, where poetry, storytelling, and playful prompts encourage children to leap across centuries and imagine alternative futures. Meanwhile, nature lovers can explore Weird and Wonderful Plants, meeting extraordinary botanical specimens, including carnivorous plants, and discovering how flora can be fierce, fragrant, and full of surprises.

Families can also roll up their sleeves for Hands-On Archaeology. Budding archaeologists can handle real artefacts, meet researchers, and discover how clues from the past help us understand the present.

Weekend Schedule

Running across both Saturday and Sunday is Destination Restoration II: Join Our Journey to a Flourishing World, an inspiring, interactive experience exploring how landscapes can be restored and how communities can build a greener future.

On Saturday morning, creativity meets mathematics at the Department of Pathology on Tennis Court Road during Islamic Geometry. Families will uncover the mathematical principles behind breathtaking geometric art and create their own dazzling patterns inspired by centuries of design tradition.

Meanwhile, at the Pitt Building on Trumpington Street, the energy rises with the Dancing Science Movement Workshops. Taking place on Saturday and Sunday at 11.40, 12.40, and 15.10, these lively sessions explore the science of emotional regulation through movement. Expect rhythm, reflection, and plenty of joyful motion as science quite literally leaps off the page.

Sunday Adventures

Sunday, March 29, continues the adventure at the Pitt Building. Even More Impossible Questions is a mind-bending session packed with curious conundrums and surprising experiments. Why is water wet? What exactly is the point of snot? No question is too strange in this delightfully thought-provoking event.

Later that afternoon, Battle of the Beasts promises an hour of laughter and lively debate. In this interactive, Top Trumps-style showdown, families will champion their favourite animals as experts reveal astonishing facts about the natural world. Expect fierce competition and plenty of roaring fun.

Testimonial from the Coordinator

Jennifer Williams, Cambridge Festival Families Coordinator, said: “The Family Weekend is basically our excuse to turn Cambridge into one giant playground of ideas. We want families to come along, try something new, ask silly questions, get stuck in and maybe even surprise themselves. Whether you’re building a tiny planet, digging up the past or dancing your way through science, it’s all about having fun together.”

She added: “And don’t stop here - make sure you dive into the full Cambridge Festival programme. There’s even more to discover, from robotics workshops and explosive chemistry shows to live game shows and brain-teasing escape rooms. There are fantastic events for children and families happening all weekend long and right across the Festival dates. This is just a sneak peek of the fun we’ve packed into the Family Weekend, so come along, explore, and see what sparks your curiosity.”