Culture of Guildford

Theatre which sometimes shows productions before and frequently after they have spent time in London's West End. The Electric Theatre opened in 1997 to host performances by musicians and amateur drama groups. It also hosts regular film, family and music festivals as well as comedy and has a Riverside Cafe Bar and Terrace. The boileroom hosts new and established folk, pop and rock acts.

Guildford also has an Odeon cinema multiplex, which is as of June 2007 the only cinema in the world showing digital 4K films to the public . Guildford Civic Hall was the town's main arts and entertainment venue. It closed in January 2004 and has been replaced by a new venue, G Live, which opened in September 2011. In 2009 the Mill Studio in Guildford featured the English premiere of the one-woman musical, Estelle Bright, starring actress/singer Sarah Tullamore.

The Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, founded as the Guildford Municipal Orchestra, received full council funding from 1945 until it was withdrawn in 2012. The orchestra will disband in Spring 2013. The opportunity to run the council's classical music service with reduced funding from the council is currently being put out to tender.

Stoke Park, the largest park, is the venue for both the Guilfest music festival during the summer and the Surrey County Show – agricultural and general – on the last bank holiday Monday in May. Previous to 2007, the Ambient Picnic was held in Shalford Park, by the River Wey.

Guildford is one of notably few places locally to have a model railway club, the Astolat Model Railway Circle, which meets at the National Trust's Dapdune Wharf

Radio stations, Kane 103.7 FM, 96.4 The Eagle, County Sound Radio (1566 AM), GU2 Radio, and BBC Surrey are based in Guildford