What’s on this Summer, 2023

Enjoy the Festival of Plants, music in the open air with Sounds Green or simply enjoy the colours of summertime in the Garden

We hope you enjoy this round up of our summer events.

If you’re visiting the Garden for a day out, the following information may be of interest:

About the Garden; Garden and plantings; Horticultural collections and Plant Picks, selected each week by our Head of Horticulture.

We also have a range of free adult trails, available to collect and follow from our tickets offices.

We hope you enjoy your visit!

Festival of Plants - 10 June

A fun-filled, fact-finding day out, celebrating the wonder of plants. There’s something for everyone to enjoy: from families to photographers, gardeners to budding plant scientists or anyone looking to spend an uplifting day in beautiful surroundings when the Garden is full of summer colour.

🌸 Listen to 10 minute, bite-size talks about a range of innovative plant-related topics

🌸 Take a free, themed guided tour

🌸 Meet University scientists at pop-up family-friendly interactive plant science stalls

🌸 Get expert garden advice from the ‘Ask-the-Gardener’ panel

🌸 Enjoy crafty children’s activities

🌸 Enjoy food from the Garden Cafe or the pop-up refreshment stalls

🌸 Or simply picnic, relax and enjoy soaking up the atmosphere and live music in stunning surroundings

For more information visit the Festival of Plants page.

Sounds Green – every Wednesday evening in July, 6.15 – 8.30pm

Join us for an evening of live open-air music from Cambridge Summer Music every Wednesday evening in July.

Set on the Garden’s Main Lawn, visitors can relax and enjoy informal and fun performances with family and friends, on a (hopefully) warm and balmy evening.

🎵 Music begins at 6.30pm, lasting approximately one hour.

🎵 Visitors are welcome to enjoy the Garden until 8.30pm when the gates will close.

🎵 Picnics are welcome. Food and drink will be provided by The Garden Café and a different food truck each week, with ice cream from Jack’s Gelato.

🎵 Bring a rug or picnic chair and relax in beautiful surroundings to some stunning musical sounds!

For more information about each event, please go to the specific page:

Wednesday 5th July: Prime Brass

Wednesday 12th July: Honey & the Bear

Wednesday 19th July: Arun Ghosh

Wednesday 26th July: Bones Apart

International Garden Photographer of the Year special competition

A free-to-enter competition themed ‘Discovery in CUBG’ will be open to all adult visitors to the Garden and will run across the summer. Places 1-3 will receive a prize and have their work on display in the Garden in 2024, as part of the main IGPOTY exhibition.

Gillian Plummer 2nd Place (2022) A Splash of Colour Click for information

The competition is open to adults over 18 and will run until 31 October this year, providing visitors the opportunity to capture the Garden over two of the most beautiful and changing seasons.

For more information visit the competition page and for all entry details visit the IGPOTY website.

Around the World Family Trail, 20 July – 3 September, 10am – 6pm

🌎 Forget the long airport queues and flights, you can travel all around the world in just one day at the Botanic Garden! Pick up your free travel journal from the Garden’s Ticket Offices and track down amazing plants from all around the world, collecting passport stamps as you go!

Free for children. Normal Garden admission charge for accompanying adults.

Science on Sundays

Science on Sundays brings the latest discoveries in plant science, as well as research linked to CUBG’s plant collection to visitors in a 30 minute nutshell. Join Cambridge University Plant Scientists for two talks:

🧬The fascinating world of freshwater microbes, Sunday 18 June

🧬Plant and their offspring: Trait reassortment, diversity and crops, Sunday 16 July.

Free with Garden admission. Talks start at 2.30pm.