Culture of Chester

Chester has a substantial annual festival season each summer run by arts producer Chester Performs. It includes Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, the only full-time professional open air theatre company outside London. The season runs for eight weeks in the city's park. The company also runs the MBNA Chester Music Festival in June and the Chester Literature Festival each October.

Chester Little Theatre is based in Newtown and run by Chester Theatre Club. It generally stages 5 or 6 plays each year. Chester Music Theatre is based in a converted church in Boughton. There is no longer a multiplex cinema and a ten pin bowling alley at Greyhound Retail Park on the edge of the city. Chester has its own film society, a number of amateur dramatic societies and theatre schools.

To the east side of the city is Chester Zoo, the UK's largest zoo with over 11,000 animals in 110 acres of award-winning gardens.

Numerous pubs, nightclubs and bars, some of which are based in medieval buildings, populate the city