Reading Fringe Festival banner AFTER breaking records and going global in its last two years Reading Fringe Festival will be taking a pause in 2021 as it plans for its tenth anniversary and beyond. Created in 2012 with the first festival taking place the following year, the July festival has quickly established itself as a fixture in both the Reading cultural calendar and the national fringe festival programme. In particular it has grown rapidly in recent years. Last year saw Reading Fringe Digital reach more than 13,000 households online, across six continents. This year the Fringe team has decided that rather than run its usual line-up of some 100 events covering cabaret, comedy, dance, drama, music, spoken word and more, they will instead take time out to plan its future and explore options that will allow the festival to come back better than ever in 2022.