Bookings open for Cambridge Festival of Ideas

Bookings open today [25th September] for the 2017 Cambridge Festival of Ideas, which features a huge range of events and discussions on subjects ranging from empire and Brexit, the future of Europe and conspiracy theories to the past, present and future of India.

The Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. It runs from 16th to 29th October with exhibitions, films, performances, talks and debates held around Cambridge, many of them free. The programme is bursting with over 200 events, a large number investigating the subject that has dominated the news over the past 12 months - truth.

Speakers include some of the world’s leading thinkers, such as the philosopher Professor Rae Langton on post-truth as post-democracy, historian Professor Richard Evans, Classics author and presenter Tom Holland, the economist Dr Ha-Joon Chang, Tristram Hunt, former Labour MP and now director of the Victorian and Albert Museum, award-winning author Pankaj Mishra, Richard Dearlove, former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service and Dame Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics.

A packed programme of discussions and debates includes:

Encountering Brexit - perspectives and challenges - a panel discussion covering what Brexit means for business, international relations, education and research, domestic politics and diversity and human rights in the UK. With David Champion, senior editor at the Harvard Business Review, Hans Kundnani, Senior Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund, Oreoluwa Ogunbiyi, President of the Cambridge University African Caribbean Society, Margret Wintermantel, President of the German Academic Exchange Service, and Professor Robert Wintermute. 27th October

Is relativism to blame for our post-truth world? - with Professor Simon Goldhill, Dr Caroline Edwards, Dr Priyamvada Gopal and Professor Frank Furedi. 21st October

Can politics keep up with technology? - Dr Beth Singler, Dr Nora Ni Loideain, Will Moy from the Full Fact correction agency and author George Zarkadakis. 21st October

Populism - populists can be sloppy with facts and speedy with promises that are impossible to deliver, but they can also highlight real inequities and persuade followers that they are in possession of some greater truth. With Dr Hugo Drochon, Dr Tanya Filer, Dr Ayca Cubukcu, Dr Nayanika Mathur and Dr Madeline Reeves. 16th October

You are what you sleep - RAND Europe discuss new research on sleep research and explain why sleep needs to be taken more seriously. 17th October

The Festival also features a number of talks and lectures, several of which related to newly released books or forthcoming projects, including:

Matt Worley, author of the new book No future: punk, politics and British youth culture 1976-1984, on the rise and significance of punk on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the release of the Sex Pistols’ groundbreaking album, Never Mind the Bollocks. 24th October

EU law expert Kenneth Armstrong, author of Brexit time: leaving the EU - why, how and when? 24th October

The return of Eastern Europe and the new Intermarium - Timothy Less, director of the Nova Europa consultancy,  explores the future of Eastern Europe and the significance of the region for Europe’s overall security and political architecture. 21st October

The 70th anniversary of Indian independence will be marked with a series of events, exhibitions and films, including a panel discussion on Indian democracy with author Pankaj Mishra [17th October], a celebration of Diwali, India’s Festival of Light, at the Botanic Garden [25th October] and India Unboxed, a specially curated series of Indian cinema, from classics to the best contemporary documentaries.

Performance and film are a key feature of the Festival. The programme features a number of experimental events designed to provoke both the brain and the senses, such as Freak Floods [25th October], which brings together harper and sonic artist Una Monaghan with vocalist Emily DeDakis in a text-sound collaboration, and Me & Robin Hood [18th October], a solo show by award-winning artistic director Shon Dale-Jones which questions the value of art and the power of story.

For art lovers, there are a host of exhibitions throughout the Festival, from Pallavi Paul’s installation Terra Firma which explores the mechanics of truth production to an exhibition of mythical beasts and supernatural beings depicted in manuscripts, rare books and magic scrolls in St John’s College’s Special Collections.

There are also hands-on event for all ages, ranging from art workshops to a family day exploring the Arctic and the animals and people who live there [21st October].

Ariel Retik, manager of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas, said: “There’s something for everyone at the Festival of Ideas, all designed to challenge people’s ideas about the world, provoke new ones and raise interesting questions for the future. The Festival spans all aspects of the human experience and this year’s theme will explore one of the biggest questions today: what does truth really mean.”

The Festival sponsors and partners are St John’s College, Anglia Ruskin University, RAND Europe, University of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, Arts Council England, Cambridge Junction, The Nine Dots Prize, Cambridge Film Festival, Cambridge University Press and The Conversation. The Festival media partner is BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

*To book ring 01223 766766.  The full programme is available here.