Harlow fireworks 2026: Sunday 1 November, free, 6.30pm

Harlow Council has run a free bonfire and fireworks night at the Town Park Showground every year since 1978, missing only 2020. This November is the 48th, and the date is now confirmed: Sunday 1 November 2026. The council’s bonfire and fireworks night page says the display “will take place at the Showground in Harlow Town Park on Sunday 1 November 2026”.

The quick answer

• Sunday 1 November 2026, Harlow Town Park Showground, free entry.
• Bonfire lit at 6.15pm, fireworks from 6.30pm.
• Fifth Avenue and parts of Park Lane and School Lane shut 5.15pm to 8.30pm; Sainsbury’s stays reachable.

Updated 28 September: Down Hall has announced its 2026 ticketed display for Sunday 8 November, £39 an adult; Harlow’s own arrangements are unchanged.

When the council has announced it, year by year

The 2023 and 2025 announcement dates come from the council’s own news pages; the 2024 one from Your Harlow’s report. The 2026 date was on the council’s page when we checked on 25 September.

Bonfire night itself, 5 November, is a Thursday this year. As in 2024 and 2025, the council has taken the Sunday immediately before.

The timings have not moved since 2023

The council brought the evening forward for 2023 and has kept it there:

• 6.15pm, the bonfire is lit
• 6.30pm, the fireworks start

That change came from parent feedback. The council said in its 2023 announcement that earlier times “follow feedback from parents who have felt previous events have gone on too late for children that have to attend school the next day”. The display itself ran about 20 minutes in 2024.

Entry is free, as it has been throughout. The council calls it “one of the largest free admission displays in the east of England”, and more than 15,000 people attended in 2024.

Road closures: check the year, do not reuse last year’s

The closures have shifted between years, so the safe move is to read the current notice rather than remember the last one.

In 2025 the council closed Fifth Avenue and parts of Park Lane and School Lane between 5.15pm and 8.30pm. Access to and from Sainsbury’s stayed open throughout.

In 2023 the closure list was longer. Fifth Avenue, Park Lane, School Lane and “some roads serving these roads” shut from 5.15pm to 8.30pm, and on top of that the Sainsbury’s roundabout to Mandela Avenue roundabout was closed from 6pm to 8.30pm. That second closure was not repeated in the 2025 notice.

In 2024 it was there but redrawn. The council’s announcement of 11 October 2024 closed the same three roads from 5.15pm, then closed the Sainsbury’s roundabout to the First Avenue roundabout, not Mandela Avenue, and from 6.30pm rather than 6pm. Three years, three versions of the same notice. Read the current one.

For 2026 the council’s page repeats the 2025 wording: Fifth Avenue, parts of Park Lane and School Lane closed between 5.15pm and 8.30pm, with access to and from Sainsbury’s kept open. The map linked from that page is still the 2025 closure notice, so a 2026 notice may yet add detail.

Parking, and the trap at the Showground

The parking offer also changed between years, and in one respect it matters a great deal.

2026 arrangements, as published on the council’s page on 25 September, are the same as 2025’s:

• Water Gardens car park free from 4pm to midnight
• Altham Grove, School Lane and Wych Elm free from 6pm to 8pm
• Blue Badge holders only at the Showground car park, entered via Gladwin Way, before 5.45pm
• Post Office Road car park closed for temporary bus station works
• additional parking at Harlow Town railway station

2023 arrangements were different again: free parking from 5.30pm to 7.30pm at Altham Grove, Post Office Road, School Lane, First Avenue and Wych Elm, with no mention of the Water Gardens at all.

The trap is the Showground. In both years the council warned that vehicles parked there cannot leave until the Fifth Avenue closure is lifted, which is 8.30pm. A Blue Badge space by the bonfire costs you two hours at the end of the night. If someone in your party needs to leave straight after the display, park somewhere else.

The toilets next to Pets’ Corner will be open on the night and close at 8pm. The council asks people not to bring fireworks, to bring a torch, to wear footwear for a muddy Showground and to leave pets at home. Lost children are taken to the control tent at the top of the Showground.

For what the car parks cost on an ordinary day, and which ones are free without any event laid on, see parking in Harlow. Thirteen of the council’s fourteen car parks give the first hour free and six of the neighbourhood ones charge nothing at all outside weekday working hours. Check Harlow roadworks and travel before you set off.

Pets’ Corner: what the council actually does

Harlow is unusual in holding its display a few hundred metres from a working animal collection, and it has published, in detail, how the animals are handled. The council’s account is worth reading if you have ever wondered:

• every small animal enclosure is covered to cut light and some noise
• all animals are brought inside and kept out of the paddocks
• each pen has a named keeper the animals already know, whose job that evening is to feed them the moment the fireworks start, then stay with them
• Pets’ Corner and the event control are in constant contact, so keepers know exactly when the display begins and can raise an emergency straight back
• staff stay on after the event until the animals have settled

The council says it has never had an incident with the display. Nothing here is a substitute for keeping your own dog indoors on the night.

The other display near Harlow, and it is not free

Down Hall, Matching Road, Hatfield Heath CM22 7AS, runs a large ticketed fireworks night about six miles east of Harlow. It is worth knowing two things about it. It sells out, and it is not in Harlow: Hatfield Heath is in Uttlesford, so nothing on the council’s Harlow pages applies to it.

Its 2026 fireworks night is on Sunday 8 November, according to Down Hall’s announcement as carried by Your Harlow on 10 September. Gates open at 6pm and the display starts at 7pm, with a family disco, face painting and street food before it. Prices:

• General admission: £39 an adult, £25 a child aged two to 12, under twos free, hot drinks included
• VIP terrace: £74 an adult, £45 a child, with a reserved table, food and a drink
• Patio view with an overnight stay: £375 a room; a balcony suite package is £550 a couple

Both prices are up on 2025, when the same night ran on Sunday 9 November at £35 an adult and £25 a child, with the VIP terrace at £70 and £45.

Note the date: 8 November 2026 is also Remembrance Sunday, so the morning service at Netteswell Cross and Down Hall’s evening display fall on the same day. Down Hall’s own website blocks automated reading, so we have taken the details from the announcement rather than its booking page; check the price on the booking page before you pay.

What to check back for

Every date, time, price and closure above is quoted from Harlow Council’s own pages and news releases, or from Your Harlow’s contemporaneous reports, read on 3 September 2026, with the 2026 date, times, closures and parking re-checked against the council’s page on 25 and 28 September 2026.