Recordings of past Alumni Festivals are now available on the Festival Player. Over the years, the Alumni Festival has allowed thousands of alumni to explore interesting topics, with highlights including:

2022

• You may have seen the spectacular images of our universe from The James Webb Space Telescope. But how is this data transforming our knowledge about the evolution of galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centres? Hear from three leading Cambridge astrophyicists about The James Webb Space Telescope and the complex lives of galaxies 
• Andrew Lownie, author of a prize-winning biography of the Cambridge Spy, draws on newly released documents to tell the full story of Guy Burgess's treachery and lonely exile in Russia, in Stalin's Englishman: the lives of Guy Burgess 

2021

• Will climate policy increase inequality? Can the public finances support pandemic recovery and climate action simultaneously? Dr Matthew Agarwala and Dr Cristina Peñasco discuss Climate change and the economy: what COP26 needs to know.
• Dr Giles Yeo MBE (Wolfson 1994) explains why calories don’t count and why instead we should be focusing on the food we eat.

2020 – 30^th Anniversary

• Andrew Lownie gives an enthralling portrait of the private and public lives of Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten, covering their wartime careers, their period as Viceroy & Vicereine of India, and their links to Royal Family in his lecture: The Mountbattens: their lives and loves.
• A large swathe of Cambridge’s most iconic lawn has been transformed into an ecosystem rich in biodiversity, that sees harebells, buttercups, poppies, cornflowers and more stretching from the Chapel to the banks of the Cam. Join King's College Head Gardener Stephen Coghill for a tour of the stunning King’s College wildflower meadow, and discover how it came about.

2019

• Dr Julie Barrau discusses the life, times and influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine (c.1122-1204): Queen, mother, political leader, legend. Hear more about one of the most influential women of the twelfth century.
• Discover the University’s remarkable Collection of Aerial Photography, recording lost archaeological sites and industrial and post-industrial landscapes of Britain with Roman archaeologist JK St Joseph. Explore the remarkable imagery of Britain from the air: 1945-2000.