Free Festival in Reading to Feed Thousands!

Thousands will be fed at a free festival coming to Reading next weekend.

The Rathayatra Festival, organised by the Hare Krishnas (ISKCON), parades deities through Broad Street on Saturday, July 25 from 1pm to 2pm and runs in Forbury Gardens from 12pm to 5pm.

It's ISKCON's biggest local event and the volunteer pool grows each year, with helpers coming from across the UK including Basingstoke, Newbury and London.

The organisers are affiliated with the Food For All charity, which will cook meals for five thousand people using ‘Europe’s largest cooking vessel’.

Mr Das said: "The charity makes 10,000 meals a day, we’ve made pop-up kitchens in Ukraine by turning swimming pools into kitchens, a rapid action crisis team has just been to Venezuela providing emergency food relief, sleeping bags and necessities for disaster."

Amala Mataji, a yoga teacher and ISKCON devotee, says it's a family festival with a kids' area and stage performances, where people come together, relax and leave happy.

There will also be mantra meditation and yoga from Bagwan Gita, the source of inspiration for the community, plus music, singing and dancing.

Hugh Rendle, 22, a Business Management student at the University of Reading, said: "I came across the society in the Freshers Fayre, it was very uplifting. I started volunteering, it’s very nice to see people getting uplifted from the food and seeing the smiles."

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter