In a year that has been quite out-of-the-ordinary, Reading is set to see something pretty extra-ordinary this Christmas season. For the first time ever, Reading will have its very own Twilight Trail, a magical festive trail full of sparkles and illuminations, leading you through Reading’s iconic Forbury Gardens and Abbey Ruins.

Wander through a magical backdrop of illuminated trees, create your own light shows with interactive displays and watch the Abbey Ruins come alive with sound and light. Discover dazzling light orbs, floating mirror balls and enchanting shows of kaleidoscope patterns and colours as you experience Reading’s first Twilight Trail this Christmas.

The brand-new light trail, brought to you by Reading UK, Reading BID and Reading Borough Council, will launch in Forbury Gardens on Monday 8th December and will run throughout the festive season.

To keep everyone as safe as possible and comply with current Government Coronavirus Guidelines around social distancing, there will be a limited number of tickets available for the Twilight Trail, with allocated timeslots every 20 minutes.

All tickets must be pre-booked in advance via Reading Arts.
Please be aware that we don’t authorise or have any control over the sale of tickets via third-party websites.

So, book your ticket now and let the magic begin.

8th December 2020 – 3th January 2021
4pm – 10pm, with bookable timeslots every 20mins from 4pm to 8.40pm
Forbury Gardens, via Abbey Gate entrance

Twilight Trail accessible evening: 21 December
On Monday 21 December, we will be dimming the lighting, reducing the sound and limiting tickets per session to make the Twilight Trail as sensory friendly as possible.

To support the neurodiverse audiences, they are working with their lighting installation partner Yes Events to make the Twilight Trail as accessible as possible on 21 December. This includes lowering the brightness of the lights throughout the Trail, reducing the volume of the sound installations and including hearing loops for any installations that are accompanied with voiceovers. They will also reduce the number of bookable tickets for each time slot, so that families are given more space to enjoy the lighting installations comfortably.

These sessions are marked as “Relaxed Performance” in the list of available dates.

We are also working to make sure all sessions throughout the run of the Twilight Trail (8 December – 3 January) are as accessible as possible, providing wheelchair-accessible alternative routes wherever needed and bowls of water and treats for assistance dogs.

For general queries or for more information about this event, please see the Twilight Trail FAQ page.

If you have any queries about your booking, contact the Box Office – forburytwilighttrail@gmail.com

This will be the second Window Wanderland accross the whole of West Reading.

The idea is to cheer up otherwise dark and cold evenings with fun and light, in the form of decorated windows, and an opportunity for the community to come together. People can walk with neighbours and friends to follow the window trail and explore their neighbourhod in a new light.

Last year, over 40 houses decorated their windows and hundreds of school children decorated their school windows at Wilson Primary, Battle School and Oxford Road Community School. Over one thousand people downloaded the map to follow the magical trail with friends and neighbours.

2020 will be even bigger and brighter. If you would like to find out more, or get involved by decorating your windows at home, at work, at school, at a nursery, at a business or organisation please sign up here and encourage your neighbours to get involved. This works so well if a lots of people take part on a street and then get together to see eachother’s windows. See how one street had fun doing this last year here.

The organisers will again be holding free workshops where they’ll provide materials, tools and people can swap ideas, tips and skills.

West Reading Window Wanderland 2020 | 29 Feb – 1 Mar 2020 from 6pm to 9pm. Please register or sign in to make a window.

The lead up to Christmas officially begins in Reading this weekend as the lights are switched on around the town.

Starting from Santa arriving on a motorised bed to light up the town and Broad Street Mall with thousands of Christmas lights, three new trees sparkle at the station, in Broad Street and The Forbury

Music in Broad Street to accompany the Christmas lights switch on:-

Jive Aces 12.30 -2.30 (X Factor finalists)

RASPO (Reading All Steel Percussion Orchestra) 3.00 – 5.00