Oldest annual popular music festival (current)

The UK’s Reading Festival, which started out as the nomadic National Jazz (& Blues) Festival before moving to its permanent home in Reading in 1971, is the oldest annual popular music festival still in existence. The three-day event, staged simultaneously with the Leeds Festival, has been held since 1961 and has welcomed headline acts such as The Rolling Stones (1963-64), Pink Floyd (1969), Black Sabbath (1983) and Nirvana (1992). More recently, Eminem (2013) and Arctic Monkeys (2014) have filled Reading's headline slots, and Metallica, Mumford & Sons and The Libertines were the leading attractions in 2015. Reading's precursor, the National Jazz Festival, was the brainchild of Marquee Club founder Harold Pendleton (UK). The first festival was staged at Richmond Athletic Association Grounds in Surrey, UK, on 26-27 August 1961. Although the first festivals featured renowned jazz stars like Chris Barber, Ken Colyer, Mike Cotton, Johnny Dankworth and Terry Lightfoot, rock bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Small Faces, Cream and Deep Purple were appearing on the bill by the mid-late 1960s.

The first events were billed as the National Jazz Festival. In 1964, it became the National Jazz & Blues Festival before being renamed the National Jazz, Blues & Rock Festival when it moved to Reading in 1971, Reading Rock (in 1976) and finally the Reading Festival.

In 1984 and 1985, the local council reclaimed the festival site in Reading for development and the event had to be cancelled when an alternative venue could not be found. Today, the festival is held at Little John's Farm, Richfield Avenue.

In terms of continuous existence (i.e., no break since inauguration), the Pinkpop Festival has been held for 46 consecutive years (1970–2015) in the province of Limburg, the Netherlands. Attracting more than two million unique visitors and 650 different acts since 1970, Pinkpop has grown from a one-day festival in the city of Geleen to a three-day event in the town of Schaesberg, with an average annual attendance of almost 50,000.

There are older music festivals in existence, notably the Worcester Music Festival (USA, 1858-present), the Three Choirs Festival (UK, 1719-present) and the Cheltenham Music Festival (UK, 1945-present), but Reading is the oldest annual popular music festival still going strong.

It has been claimed that the one-off Spalding Rock Festival, aka Barbeque '67, was the world's first rock festival, but due to the fact that the National Jazz & Blues Festival featured rock bands like The Rolling Stones and The Who before 1967 it is Reading that should be regarded as the first festival to feature popular music acts on the bill.

The Leeds Festival began in 1999.