Every year Reading hosts the Reading Festival, which has been running since
1971. The festival takes place on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August
bank holiday weekend. For some twenty years until 2006, Reading was also known
for its WOMAD Festival until it moved to Charlton Park in Malmesbury,
Wiltshire. The Reading Beer Festival was first held in 1994 and has now grown
to one of the largest beer festivals in the UK. It is held at King's Meadow for
the five days immediately preceding the May Day bank holiday every year.
On the south side of Friar Street there once stood the Royal County Theatre,
