This website uses cookies. Read more about our cookie/privacy policy.

Accept and Close

The Sheffield culture guide written by in-the-know locals

Festival of the Mind

Thu. 19 September 2024 — Sun. 29 September 2024

Free

Amazing work goes on behind university walls. New ideas constantly bounce from one laboratory or seminar room to the next. With a little help from Sheffield's creative community, that work and those ideas are let loose in the city throughout the Festival of the Mind.

Every other autumn, Festival of the Mind creates something new and exciting out of Sheffield University research. It brings academic and creative minds from Sheffield together to collaborate on projects that present an area of study to the public through art, film, music and more. All the subjects you would expect of academia are covered – architecture, science, engineering, history, music, health, literature, and so on – but in very non-academic ways.

The Spiegeltent – a glorious concert hall constructed from wood, canvas and decorative stained glass windows – lands in Barker's Pool each Festival of the Mind and acts as the main festival venue, with other events and installations scattered across the city.

Festival of the Mind returns in September 2024 for its seventh edition. The programme for 2024 will focus on themes of creativity, participation, cohesion and learning.

Come back closer to the time for programme details.

You might also like...

Lightning Seeds

Fri. 8 November 2024

The Octagon Centre, Clarkson Street, S10 2TQ

Celebrate 35 years of pure joy with one of the country’s best loved bands on their greatest hits tour.

Record Junkee

A music shop and record store near Sheffield’s Moor Market, and also home to a 150 capacity venue and bar. They’re inspired by the inclusive ethos that bred the best acts from the city’s past – from original bassline to post-punk and back again.

UDAGAN

UDAGAN combine the contemporary technology of live coding with indigenous folklore and shamanic culture from the Arctic North, resulting in otherworldly soundscapes. We spoke to Saydyy-Kuo and Oscar ahead of the duo's performance at Sensoria.

Western Bank Library

A modernist beauty that makes us envy students for all the hours they get to spend here.