This year's celebration of Bastille Day in Forbury Gardens saw a great turnout with families from across the town and beyond coming together to celebrate French culture. 

Stalls were stationed across the lawn selling quintessentially French cuisine, like traditional tartes, moules frites, and cheeses. 

Dancers from Sandy Maya's dance school took to the stage to perform a can-can number along with a selection of other dance pieces. 

Member of the group Hazel Ralph said she has been dancing for years with the other ladies, and thoroughly enjoys performing at events like Bastille Day. 

"We've been doing Bastille Day for about six years now. We started off just belly dancing but it's evolved to different stuff," she said. 

"I've been dancing for nine years and my specialty is belly dancing."

Another group member Sharon Branch said "We have always celebrated Bastille Day. They asked us to put a piece together and here we are! We all went and bought the can-can skirts ourselves."

Other than some spectacular dancing, Bastille Day at Forbury Gardens also saw a mass gathering of the historical reenactment society Historia Normannis. 

The group is made up of members who come from every part of the country and regularly get together for heritage events such as this one. 

Deputy head of the Reading division Jennifer Berdollt said that the group combat trains every weekend at Prospect Park. 

"This is our first local show so we are very happy to be here," she said.

"Combat is just one aspect of the hobby really. We also do general living displays of everyday life, that include crafts and all sorts of things."

Other than a dozen or so chain-mail-cladded men clobbering each other with swords and shields, group members were also making belts, weaving tapestries, making cosmetics, and cooking. 

Group member Owen Humphries said "We are focussing on the mid twelfth century at the moment which was a really important time for Reading.

"It was a time of civil war, which events after led to Reading Abbey being built by king Henry and him being buried there.

"We're here today because it is the Bastille Day festival celebrating French culture in Reading."

Tallia Ingall, a woman who loves fashion in her spare time and was focussing on making medieval cosmetics today, said that she enjoys being a part of the society

"We all have more local groups and those are the ones that meet more regularly. It is great though as you know people from all over the country," she said.