Reading Walks Festival dates announced

18th January 2024

REDA is delighted to announce the dates for the second Reading Walks Festival. Following on from last year's inaugural guided walks festival in Reading, the 2024 Reading Walks Festival will take place between 11 and 19 May 2024. 

We are currently pulling together the programme which will take place over a longer time-period than last year and incorporate two weekends to make it as accessible as possible. 

We are pleased that many of our walks leaders are returning to offer walks in 2024. Last year's festival was heavily booked and we will therefore be offering a mix of walks that includes some of the most popular from 2023 as well as many new ones. 

The Reading Walks Festival is a guided walks festival. Designed to tell the stories of Reading, the Festival aims to engage people in the amazing heritage, culture and natural landscapes in and around Reading through a series of walks led by passionate local volunteers. Our walks will range from 40- minute wanders to two-day pilgrimages and we hope will offer the opportunity to learn something new, meet new people and enjoy the outdoors.

The 2024 Festival will pick up where last year’s festival left off by designing walks to link to our public transport network. In 2023, 70% of the festival walkers used public transport or other sustainable methods of transport to access the walks. In that vein, we are delighted to announce that GWR will be supporting the festival as our Official Travel Partner. Many of the walks will link into railway stations in the Reading area.

Alex Brannen, Reading Walks Festival co-ordinator, said: “Feedback from the 2023 Festival was overwhelmingly positive and has inspired us to pull together a great programme for this year. While fans of the festival will have to wait until early March for full details of the programme, we are excited to share some early information about the walks to be included: from discovering the history of areas of Reading such as Coley or Earley to the story of Reading’s last abbot, exploring the Thames and lovely surrounding countryside with walks to Shiplake and Pangbourne and discovering some of Reading’s natural habitats and trees. We look forward to walking with you later in the year.”

The Reading Walks Festival is organised by REDA, Reading’s Economy and Destination Agency with support from Reading BID, GWR and may other stakeholders. In particular, we are indebted to the  enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteer walk leaders who give up their time to share their passion for Reading and the surrounding countryside.

The full programme will be published in early March. In 2023, many of the walks sold out quickly. To get first notification of the programme, subscribe to the visit-reading newsletter.