Wokingham Fireworks: Saturday 7 November, Tickets 14 Sept

The Wokingham Annual Fireworks Spectacular is on Saturday 7 November 2026 at Cantley Park, and tickets go on sale on Monday 14 September. Both facts come from the organiser’s own site, which currently runs a live countdown clock to the on-sale moment (Wokingham Fireworks, buy tickets page).

Bonfire night itself falls on Thursday 5 November this year, so the town’s display is two days later, on the Saturday.

There is a catch worth knowing before you plan the evening, and it is the reason most pages about this event are wrong. The trust’s own Event Details page has not been updated for 2026. It still carries the heading “PROVISIONAL EVENT DETAILS, Saturday 1 November 2025” at the foot, and every time on it is last year’s (Wokingham Fireworks, event details). Those times have been stable for years, so they are a reasonable guide, but they are not yet confirmed for 2026 and we will update this page when the trust republishes them.

The times, as last published

These are the times the Wokingham Fireworks Charitable Trust published for the 2025 event, on a page that is still live and unchanged:

The procession is the part regulars turn out for. The trust describes “several thousand people with 700 flaming torches walking down Broad Street” and says plainly: “If you have never attended the procession we strongly recommend it.” Torches and children’s glow toys are sold next to the Town Hall. The trust’s own instruction is that children should not be allowed to carry torches, and it recommends leather gloves for anyone who does (event details).

Last year the procession was led by St Sebastian Wokingham Band, Wokingham MP Clive Jones, borough mayor Cllr Carol Jewell, town mayor Cllr Louise Timlin, the Mini Town Mayor, and the winner of the fireworks drawing competition, 10-year-old Ellen Gardner, who then led the countdown to the display. Around 7,500 people attended and more than 700 torches were lit (Wokingham.Today, 3 November 2025).

The drawing competition is open again. The trust is inviting primary school aged children to enter “to help lead the Torchlit Parade to Cantley Park” (Wokingham Fireworks).

Tickets: what they cost, and why 14 September matters

No 2026 prices have been published. The buy-tickets page is a countdown and nothing more until 14 September.

For 2025 the prices were £10 for adults and for children over seven, and £1 for children aged seven and under, and chair of the trust David Gold said at the time: “Despite inflation the tickets are still very reasonably priced” (Bracknell News). The same £1 under-sevens price was quoted in 2024 (Wokingham.Today, 17 September 2024), so it has held for at least two years.

Book on the day tickets open if you want them. This is one of the borough’s few events that genuinely fills.

Ignore listings sites telling you tickets are already available. Wokingham Rocks currently heads its page “Wokingham Fireworks Spectacular 2026” and states “Tickets are on sale NOW”. They are not: the organiser’s countdown clock is still running to 14 September (Wokingham Rocks). The same listing gives two different postcodes for the venue, RG40 5QG and RG40 5TU. Both are real Wokingham postcodes in Norreys ward and they sit about 160 metres apart, so either will get a satnav to the right corner of the park, but it is a sign of how loosely these pages are maintained.

Parking, and why you probably should not drive to the field

The trust is blunt about this: “Parking around Cantley Field is very limited, so we strongly suggest you park in one of the town centre car parks and enjoy the Torchlight Procession to the field.”

You will be paying, but not much. The council’s evening ticket is £1.20, and its charging order runs that rate from 6pm to 10pm, which covers the whole event. Be careful with the end of it: the order says 6pm to 10pm and the Shute End page says parking is free from 10pm to 6am if you take a ticket, while every individual car park page prints “charges apply 6pm to 6am”. The two do not agree, so take a ticket rather than assume.

Carnival multi-storey on Wellington Road is the obvious choice, at 529 spaces with 17 blue badge bays, a 2.1 metre height limit and no maximum stay. Rose Street is signed 8am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, so do not leave a car there for a late finish. Our parking in Wokingham page has every council car park, its size, its disabled bays and its charging hours.

Cantley Park sits off Twyford Road on the north side of town. If you are driving in from Twyford, Hurst or Charvil, note that the procession route through the town centre closes while it is running, as set out below.

Rules on the field

All of these are the trust’s own, from its event details page:

• No dogs. The trust says many dogs are frightened by fireworks, “may react unpredictably, so could be a danger to small children”.
• No alcohol on the field, in the interests of public safety.
• No personal fireworks or sparklers, which “would be dangerous in a crowded environment”.
• Several food vendors sell hot snacks and drinks.

The trust also asks people not to buy from unauthorised traders: every official volunteer wears a WFCT, Lions, Rotary or Unicorn tabard.

Who runs it and where the money goes

The Wokingham Fireworks Charitable Trust is registered charity 1168821, with a registered address at 11 Daubeny Close, Wokingham RG41 4EJ. It was set up to pool the resources of Wokingham Rotary Club, Easthampstead Rotary Club and Wokingham Lions Club, and it says the event has run in its current form for over ten years while “the original event started in the 1980’s“. Over the last six years it has raised more than £175,000 (about us). The 2025 event was delivered by more than 90 volunteers, and its four main beneficiaries were Soulscape, Thames Valley Air Ambulance, Samaritans of Bracknell, Wokingham, Ascot and Districts, and BIBS, Babies in Buscot Support.

Road closures: the order already exists

Do not wait for an annual notice, because there will not be one. Since 30 September 2025 the borough’s recurring events have run under a single standing order, the (Various Roads, Wokingham Borough) (Public Events Traffic Regulation) Order 2025, which replaced the 2014 version. It names each event and each road once, so no fresh order is made each year (Wokingham Borough Council, draft order, PDF).

Under the heading “Wokingham Bonfire and Fireworks Procession”, Schedule II of the order prohibits driving on four lengths of road, each of them for its entire length:

• A329 Market Place
• A329 Broad Street
• Milton Road
• A321 Milton Road

That is the procession route, from Market Place down Broad Street and out along Milton Road towards Cantley Park.

The order does not set any hours. Article 2 says the restrictions apply “during the holding of the respective occasions” and only while the statutory signs are displayed, so the closure times are decided on the night and posted on cones and boards rather than published in advance. Plan for Market Place and Broad Street to be shut around the 6.15pm procession.

Our roadworks and travel page carries anything else affecting the approaches that week.

The other two displays in the borough

Wokingham town’s is not the only one, though it is the only one confirmed for 2026.

Twyford and District Round Table, at King George V Playing Fields on Loddon Hall Road, Twyford RG10 9JA. Nothing is published for 2026. The 2025 event ran on Saturday 25 October, 6.30pm to 10.30pm, with a traditional bonfire lighting and the display as the main event, at £7 adult, £4 for 12 to 16s and seniors and £2 for under-12s in advance, rising to £9, £6 and £2 on the day (Wokingham Rocks). Treat those figures with care: they are a listings site’s, not the organiser’s. Twyford Parish Council’s own event pages for it now return 404, and the Round Table sells through Ticket Tailor, which blocks automated checks, so the live position has to be looked at by hand.

Woodley and Earley Lions, at Laurel Park in Lower Earley. This one has a standing slot in the same council order, which closes Marefield, Barkby, Owston, Sibson, Sellafield Way, Egremont Drive, Allonby Close, Gosforth Close, Harrington Close, Ravenglass Close and Mawbray Close, and bans waiting on Rushey Way and Kilnsea Drive. The order being in place is not proof the display is running: the club’s own news page is headed “Previous Events” and its most recent fireworks entry is Saturday 4 November 2023. We will say plainly here if it returns.

What we will update, and when

Three things are still outstanding for 2026: the ticket prices, confirmation of the 5.30pm, 6.15pm and 7.30pm running order, and whether the Twyford and Lower Earley displays return. Prices land with the on-sale date of 14 September. The rest normally appears in late October. We will check and update this page.

If you want the wider picture of the town’s festive season, the Wokingham Winter Carnival is three weeks after the fireworks, on Sunday 29 November, and it is when the Christmas lights go on.