Last updated 12 September 2026. We will look at this again in early October, when the remaining local displays announce.
Bonfire Night falls on a Thursday this year — 5 November 2026 — which means most organised displays will run across the weekend of the 6th to the 8th.
We have gathered the ones within reach of us here in Sunbury. Some are confirmed. Several of the local ones have not announced yet, and we have said so rather than guess, because sending a family out to a field on the wrong night is the sort of thing that is hard to forgive.
Confirmed for 2026
Kempton Park Fireworks — Staines Road East, Sunbury-on-Thames, TW16 5AQ
Saturday 7 November 2026. Fireworks at 7.30pm. Ticketed.
The closest big display to us, five minutes down the road. The racecourse left this hanging for weeks; it is now stated plainly on their own fireworks page.
Richmond Family Fireworks — Richmond Athletic Ground, TW9 2SF
Sunday 1 November 2026. Gates 4.30pm, display 7pm. Ticketed.
The earliest of the local ones, and a full week before the rush.
Apps Court Farm Halloween & Fireworks Festival — Walton-on-Thames, KT12 2EG
Saturday 7 November 2026. Doors 4pm, fireworks 8pm, music until 10pm. Ticketed.
Woking Fireworks Extravaganza — Woking Park, GU22 9BA
Saturday 7 November 2026. Gates 5.30pm, fireworks 7.30pm. Ticketed, and tickets are on sale now.
Run by the Rotary Club of Woking District.
Epsom Fireworks & Funfair — Hook Road Arena, KT19 8QG
Saturday 7 November 2026. Ticketed.
Worth knowing about this one: there is a low-noise children’s display at 6.30pm before the main show at 7.30pm. If you have a small child or a nervous one, that is the reason to choose Epsom over anywhere else on this list.
Fireworks in the Park — Merton
Wimbledon Park, Thursday 5 November. Morden Park, Saturday 7 November. Ticketed.
The only local option actually on Bonfire Night itself.
Alexandra Palace Fireworks & Drone Festival — N22 7AY
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November 2026. From £11.50. Ticketed.
A drive, but the drone element makes it quieter than a conventional display, and under-10s go free on the Sunday with an early-bird ticket.
Still to be announced
These ran last year and will very likely run again, but nothing is published for 2026 yet. Local displays tend to announce from late September into mid-October.
- Shepperton Cricket Club — ran 1 November 2025, 5.30pm
- Bonfire Bangers, Staines Road — ran 8 November 2025, 7pm
- Ashford Park Primary School — ran 8 November 2025, 4.30pm
- Esher Rugby Club, Hersham — ran 31 October 2025, gates 5pm
- Sandown Park, Esher — ran 30 October 2025
- Battersea Park — date not yet announced
- Blackheath — confirmed returning in 2026 as a ticketed event, date and price not yet set
Spelthorne Borough Council publishes the round-up for the Sunbury, Shepperton, Staines and Ashford cluster, and that is the page to watch.
If you are doing it at home
Every fire service in the country would rather you went to an organised display, and they are right. But plenty of people will have a few in the garden, so here is what actually applies.
The law
You cannot set off fireworks between 11pm and 7am. On 5 November the cut-off moves to midnight. On New Year’s Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year it moves to 1am.
You cannot set off or throw fireworks — sparklers included — in the street or any public place.
You can only buy fireworks from a registered seller between 15 October and 10 November. Outside that window, only specially licensed shops may sell them. That date is worth writing down; people are routinely surprised by it.
Adult fireworks — categories F2 and F3 — cannot be sold to anyone under 18, and it is an offence for anyone under 18 to have a firework in a public place. Category 4 fireworks are for professionals only and must not be sold to the public at all. Nothing louder than 120 decibels may be sold to the public.
Penalties are not nominal: an unlimited fine and up to six months, or a £90 on-the-spot fine.
The bit that actually keeps people safe
Buy only fireworks with a CE or UKCA mark. Keep them in a closed box and take out one at a time.
Read the instructions by torchlight — never a match, never a candle.
Light at arm’s length with a taper, and stand well back. Never go back to a firework once it is lit. Not to check it, not to relight it.
Keep every naked flame away, cigarettes included.
Sparklers deserve their own paragraph, because they cause more injuries than anything else on the night. Not for children under five. Gloves on everyone holding one. Never hold a baby while you are holding a sparkler. Don’t wave them near anyone. And when it has gone out, straight into a bucket of cold water — they stay hot long after the spark has gone.
If you are having a bonfire
Build it well clear of buildings, sheds, fences, trees and hedges.
Check inside it before you light it. Hedgehogs get into bonfire piles and this is how a great many of them die every year. If it has been sitting for more than a day, move it to a fresh spot before lighting, or lift it with a broom handle and look underneath with a torch.
Never use petrol or paraffin. Never burn aerosols, paint tins, foam furniture or batteries.
Keep a bucket of water or a hose to hand, keep an adult on it until it has burnt down, and damp it thoroughly before you go in.
The animals
Fireworks register somewhere between 120 and 175 decibels. Harm to human hearing starts at about 85. Dogs and cats hear a good deal more acutely than we do. It is not a small thing for them.
The RSPCA’s guidance is worth following properly:
Dogs. Make a safe space with their own bedding and toys, somewhere enclosed if that is what they like. Walk them in daylight. Check the microchip is up to date, in case of a bolt. Put music or the television on to blunt the bangs. And behave completely normally yourself — dogs read our worry faster than they read the noise. If they want to hide under the bed, let them. Don’t coax them out.
Cats. Keep them in after dark. Give them a cosy spot wherever they already choose to hide rather than somewhere you have decided is better. A pheromone plug-in helps, but it needs to be going for some days beforehand to be worth anything.
Rabbits and guinea pigs. Bring them indoors if you possibly can. If they must stay out, cover the hutch with blankets to deaden the sound, and keep companions together — do not separate them on the night.
One honest note, because it matters: the pheromone plug-ins the RSPCA recommends are a veterinary product and have nothing to do with the aroma diffusers we sell. Ours are for the room and the people in it. Please buy the proper thing from a vet or a pet shop.
Coming in
Fireworks are the only outing all year where you stand still in a field for two hours in November and call it a good time. And it is a good time. But you come in frozen, smelling of smoke, and the house is dark.
We do the same thing every year now. The flameless candles go on the timer before we leave, so there is light in the front room when the door opens, and — on the one night of the year when everyone is thinking about fire — not one of them is a real flame.
A throw over the arm of the sofa. Something warm. Coats off, boots off, and the rest of the evening is yours.