Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, halfway (30 miles) between the City of London and the English Channel. The River Medway runs through its town centre. Maidstone is in the heart of the so-called Garden of England. Yet the town centre has the largest office centre in the county and the area is a base for the paper and packaging industry. Many high-technology firms have set up on surrounding business parks. The town is ranked in the top five shopping centres in the south east of England for shopping yields and has more than one million square feet of retail floor space, including the new Fremlin Walk. The quarrying of building stone around Maidstone has always been important and continues even today. Some of the sandstone is also used in the glass industry. Today the river is of importance mainly to pleasure-boat owners and the considerable number of people living on houseboats. For many years there has been a river festival during the last weekend in July, and a millennium project inaugurated the Medway River Walk, the Medway Park and a new footbridge linking the former cattle market (which is now a multiplex cinema and nightclub) west of the river to the shopping area to the east.