Shows, music, films and walks for the next month
24 September Milton Country Park Festival
Get out and about in the great outdoors with your family this month when Milton Country Park welcomes back its annual Autumn Festival. Taking place on Sunday 24 September, this day-long event features great food, live music, arts and crafts and plenty of opportunities for wild outdoor adventures in this beautiful green space.
Hungry tums should find their way to the foodPark area, where our city’s top street food traders will be selling their delicious fare, while you’ll also browse stalls selling great local produce to take home. If you fancy a tipple, swing by the Pinkster Gin stall or Gentleman Jim’s (a bar in a horsebox!), or head to the meadow for local ales and ciders courtesy of Milton pub the Lion & Lamb.
There will be live music from local acts including Big 10, Saltfen, Oscar Corney and Mortal Tides to get you up dancing, plus hands-on fun including wood craft, face painting and apple pressing. If you fancy something a bit more adventurous, you can learn circus skills with Right Side Up Circus, join in with a canoe safari and have ride on a miniature steam train, not to mention getting scruffy with a spot of hay play! As well as supporting local foodies, crafters and creatives, the festival also donates all proceeds towards the upkeep of Milton Country Park, helping to keep it open and accessible for everyone to enjoy.
Early bird tickets are £6 (£10 on the gate), and children under 16 years go free. Advance booking is recommended.
9 September Dragonboat Festival
Hooray, Cambridge’s madcap boating race is back for another afternoon of fun on the banks of the River Cam out in Fen Ditton. Taking place on 9 September, it offers a great day out for families, who can watch the teams battle it out on the river in the Chinese style dragon boats, enjoying the entertainment and funfair rides, and picking up something to eat and drink. Entry is free for spectators.
9 September Icklestock
The village of Ickleton in South Cambridgeshire will host the inaugural Icklestock in September: a huge day of community celebration packed with live music, great food, kids fun and a range of stalls.
The event is being held as part of a fundraising drive for the Ickleton Park Project, an initiative championing the transformation of Ickleton’s recreation ground. Villagers hope that this six-acre green space can evolve into a “unique and visionary space that encourages a healthy outdoor lifestyle for young and old – one that can be enjoyed by the whole of the South Cambs and Essex community”.
The plans in the offing include bouldering zones, scooter tracks, percussion paths, exercise stations, community orchard and a perimeter walkway.
Icklestock, a not-for-profit mini festival, is on 9 September and features a host of live music, an awesome kids zone and some seriously tasty food from popular local traders including Guerrilla Kitchen, Bread & Meat, Stem & Glory and Steak & Honour – not to mention local craft beers and a selection of artisan stalls. Get the full lowdown on the Icklestock website.
10 September The Adventures of Walter Lemonface
More fab children’s theatre from Cambridge Junction this month as the venue welcomes The Adventures of Walter Lemonface, a vibrantly colourful, fun-filled production from 154 Collective. Interactivity is at the heart of the show, in which Walter Lemonface – an adventurer, fearless inventor and connoisseur of carrots – has rhubarb ogres to hunt, ghosts to battle and adventures to find around every corner.
Combining live animation, music and storytelling to tell a heartwarming and silly tale, it’s bound to delight audiences and is suitable for children aged three and up and their grown-ups. Two shows are on 10 September and tickets are £6 per child and £10 per adult.
17 September The Girl and the Giraffe
Imagine if you found a giraffe peering over your garden fence one day? That’s exactly what happens to Girl in this lovely production from Half Moon and Floods of Ink, which stops by in Cambridge on 17 September.
Girl becomes friends with her towering visitor, but soon realises that he’s not very well. She tries all she can think of to make him feel better, from putting on bandages to making cups of tea and even baking a magnificent cake, but Giraffe is sad – and needs a different kind of plaster.
With puppetry, an enchanting soundscape and beautiful storytelling, The Girl and the Giraffe is a tale of wellbeing and friendship, sensitively looking at mental health issues from a child’s perspective.
Shows take place at 11.30am and 2.30pm and tickets are £6 for children and £10 for adults.
Chesterton Sports Centre
Fancy a family dip this September? Pop along to Chesterton Sports Centre, where the spacious indoor pool has just had a refurbishment – and with entry as low as £2.50, it’s a great value excursion to get the kids active. Better still, they’ve also had a swish new sauna installed – so you can let off some steam while the little ones splash about! If you’d rather remain on terra firma, there’s tennis courts to play on, or if one of your brood has a birthday coming up, there’s pool parties with floats and an inflatable slide, bouncy castle parties, football parties and loads more to choose from, plus options for scrummy party food from the Box Café. Check out the website for all the details.
