The festival is led by Cambridge Past, Present & Future on behalf of the Cambridge Nature Network. This year’s festival is part of the River CamCAN Project (Climate Action Through Nature) and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. The River CamCAN aims to raise awareness of the challenges faced by the River Cam and its tributaries and inspire people to take action.
Cambridge Nature Festival 2026
A five-week invitation to rediscover the living landscape
From Saturday 23rd May to Tuesday 30th June, the Cambridge Nature Network brings back the Cambridge Nature Festival for the fifth year, continuing to grow as a defining moment in the city’s environmental calendar. 
Summer Orchid in Coton Country Park
In the last five years, the Festival has grown into a shared exploration of nature in Cambridge and its surrounding villages. From the chalk streams of Ditton Meadows to the rare orchids of Haslingfield Quarry, it’s an opportunity to step outside, breathe, celebrate the Nature around us, discover community, and take part in action.
Litter picking in Ditton Meadows, Abbey
A programme that meets you where you are
With more than 180 events planned by a wide range of partners (including Cambridge Past, Present & Future, Wildlife Trust BCN, National Trust, Abbey People, On the Verge Cambridge, Water Sensitive Cambridge, Together Culture and many more), the 2026 festival builds on last year’s record-breaking programme. The range is deliberately wide, designed to welcome both deep specialists and those simply curious about the natural world.
For families
Parks and green spaces become informal classrooms. Activities designed to engage younger audiences include half-term forest school sessions at Wandlebury, pond dipping in Trumpington Meadows, and other hands-on learning experiences.
Trumpington Community and Nature Day
We are pleased to welcome back the brilliant Shake, Rattle & Roll for a special Nature-focused session in Histon for the under-fives.
For you budding citizen scientists, there’s a BugBlitz at Logan’s Meadow. These types of events bring together experts and the public to record as many species as possible in a single session. Orchards are known biodiversity hotspots, so we are pleased to announce not one but two bioblitzes in orchards this year: one in Coton Orchard and one in Histon Orchard (also with brunch!).
Early birds and night owls will appreciate encounters with nocturnal flying beings – you can survey moths at Trumpington Meadows with WildlifeBCN in the morning, and listen for bats in Cherry Hinton Hall Park with Cambridge Bat Group at dusk.
Moth-trapping in Trumpington Meadows
For the first time this year, you can explore 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history on a ‘Deep Time Walk in Cambridge’. Connect to the web of life, and move through urban and grassland landscapes while learning about local history.
For those seeking something quieter
A growing cultural strand reflects the connection between nature and well-being, with guided walks, retreats, reading sessions, poetry-writing workshops, and access to the often unseen community gardens.
The Kite Nature Project – Brandon Court
In case you missed it this autumn, rare opportunity to watch the short films commissioned for the Rivers of Film Festival, in partnership with the Living Water exhibition. There are other films in the programme this year
Why it matters
The festival is the public expression of a longer-term ambition: a coordinated effort to restore and connect nature across the Cambridge area.
Logan’s Meadow new Wetlands
Behind each event sits a simple but urgent idea. The landscapes that shape this region – fens, meadows, waterways, woodlands, and chalk downland – form a delicate and interdependent system. Their future depends on collective attention.
Participation is not just attendance. This is a small but meaningful step toward the vision to double nature across Cambridge and its surrounding areas, a key aim of the Cambridge Nature Network.
How to take part
Most events are free or low-cost, though many require booking and tend to fill quickly.
You might find yourself following the scent of wildflowers through a meadow, or drifting along the river at dusk, listening to birdsong or bats. The invitation is simple: to experience Cambridge not only as a place of history and architecture, but as a living, breathing landscape.
Further details and booking information can be found on the Cambridge Nature Festival website.
