Oscar winner Michael Moore and Richard Dawkins head for Festival of Ideas

Bookings for the Festival, the UK’s only arts, humanities and social sciences festival, opened this morning at www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas. The Festival itself runs from October 19-30, 2011.

Moore, director of Fahrenheit 9/11 and the Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine and Dawkins join a world-class collection of speakers, celebrity writers and leading academics who will examine and explain today’s burning issues.

Moore’s talk at the Festival, ‘Here Comes Trouble’, is also the title of his new book – a take-no-prisoners ‘anti-memoir’ that details how a film-maker from Flint, Michigan became the man corporate and right-wing America loves to hate.

His award-winning documentaries on gun violence in America, 9/11 and the war in Iraq, the US healthcare system and America’s love of capitalism are among the highest-grossing documentaries of all time.

Meanwhile, Richard Dawkins visits the Festival to present ideas from his first book aimed at a family audience – The Magic of Reality. Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, looks in his new book at how the real world, as understood scientifically, has a magic and beauty that is all the more inspiring for our understanding of how it works.

While both Dawkins’ and Moore’s talks are expected to sell out, the University of Cambridge hopes to welcome more than 10,000 members of the public to this year’s Festival, with more than 160 mainly free events across the widest possible spectrum of topics.

The Festival this year explores the triple themes of Freedom, Revolution and Communication with debates on Wikileaks, the Arab Spring and the imminent population landmark of seven billion humans on the planet.

Other recent additions to the Festival programme include:

• Race in the 21^st Century: is the debate over? with journalist and author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Matthew Ryder QC and Carlene Firmin  MBE, Principal Policy Advisor at the Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

• In the Pink – Dr Kat Arney explores if little girls’ fascination with the colour pink is down to their genes or culture, asking whether the pinkification of girlhood should be a cause for concern.

• Moving pictures, moving stories: the end of the Raj – Dr Kevin Greenbank and Dr Annamaria Motrescu will show some of the Centre of South Asian Studies’ unique collection of films, photos and interviews chronicling the heyday - and final days - of the Raj.

Festival organiser Sophie Smith said: “The Festival has something for everyone. Alongside the fun and lively events for families, there will be amazing musical performances in King’s College Chapel and the University of Cambridge’s museums. There is also an opportunity for Festival-goers to discuss the big questions facing us all today on topics such as reproductive freedom, Mau Mau torture claims and whether prison works.”

The main day of the festival, on Saturday, October 22, is bursting with free events for the whole family to enjoy. There will be talks by world-famous children’s authors Marcus Sedgwick and zombie-loving Charlie Higson; debates by pioneering academics and dozens of hands-on activities for adults as well as children.

The Festival of Ideas this year has been made possible thanks to the generous support of various organisations and companies, including Barclays Corporate, Research Councils UK, Cambridge University Press, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), RAND Europe, the Irwin & Joan Jacobs Foundation and Anglia Ruskin University.

The full programme is available and can be requested by phoning 01223 766766. Please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/festivalofideas