Manchester Bonfire Night 2026: Fireworks & Events Guide

Manchester Bonfire Night is back to full strength in 2026. For the first time since 2019, Manchester City Council is putting on free firework displays in its parks – Heaton Park, Wythenshawe Park and Platt Fields Park, all on Saturday 7 November – while Salford, Rochdale and a long list of cricket and rugby clubs fill the rest of the week. This guide covers every display worth knowing about, with the 2026 dates, times and prices the organisers have published, how to get there and home, the quieter options for young children and anyone sensitive to noise, and the rules if you are planning fireworks of your own.

One thing catches people out every year: Bonfire Night itself falls on Thursday 5 November 2026, but very few of the big displays are on the 5th. Salford goes the weekend before, Rochdale runs three free nights from 2 to 4 November, and Manchester’s three parks all go on the Saturday after. Pick your display first, then the date.

Manchester Bonfire Night 2026 at a glance

Display	When	Cost
Heaton Park, Wythenshawe Park and Platt Fields Park (Manchester City Council)	Sat 7 Nov: reduced-noise show 5pm, main display 8pm	Free
Buile Hill Park, Salford (Salford Firework Weekend)	Sat 31 Oct, from 4pm: three shows, no bonfire	Free
Prince’s Park, Irlam (Salford Firework Weekend)	Sun 1 Nov, from 4pm, with a bonfire	Free
Bowlee Community Park, Middleton (Rochdale Council)	Mon 2 Nov: bonfire 7pm, fireworks 7.30pm	Free
Queen’s Park, Heywood (Rochdale Council)	Tue 3 Nov: bonfire 7pm, fireworks 7.30pm	Free
Cronkeyshaw Common, Rochdale (Rochdale Council)	Wed 4 Nov: bonfire 7pm, fireworks 7.30pm	Free
Cockfields Farm, Ashton-under-Lyne	Thu 5 – Sun 8 Nov: low-bang display 7pm	Ticketed; varies by night
Bowdon Bonfire, Altrincham	Fri 6 Nov: from 7pm, with a drone show; finale 8.45pm	Ticketed
Bramhall Fireworks & Music Festival, Stockport Rugby Club	Fri 6 Nov: children’s display 7.15pm, main 8.45pm	Ticketed
Stretford Cricket Club	Sat 7 Nov: displays 7pm and 8pm	£8 adult, £5 child, £22 family
Roe Green Cricket Club, Worsley	Sat 7 Nov: low-noise 7pm, main 8pm	£10.50 adult, £8.50 child, plus fee

Times and prices are the organisers’ own, checked on 5 October 2026. Displays usually go ahead in rain but can be called off in high winds, so check the organiser’s website or social media on the day before you set off.

The free council fireworks are back

Manchester City Council used to run free Bonfire Night displays across the city – the 2019 programme took in Heaton Park, Wythenshawe Park, Platt Fields, Debdale, Cringle and Brookdale parks, and the cancelled 2021 list also included Crumpsall and the Etihad Campus. Covid stopped them in 2020 and 2021. They were cancelled again in 2022 over cost, and in 2023 the council said they would not be coming back, pointing to budgets, net zero and safety, and put on half-term activities instead. In November 2025 it changed its mind, and in September 2026 it confirmed the programme: three parks, one night.

The format is the same at all three parks:

• Date: Saturday 7 November 2026.
• 5pm: a reduced-noise, low-impact display designed for families and SEND audiences.
• Lantern parades before the main show, after lantern-making workshops at each park in the weeks leading up to the night.
• 8pm: the main fireworks display.
• Cost: free, with no tickets or booking mentioned. The council says more entertainment will be announced for each park – watch manchester.gov.uk for the details.
• Bonfire: none has been announced at any of the three, so do not promise the children one.

If you have young children, the 5pm show is the one to go to: it is built to be quieter, it is over well before bedtime, and you can be on your way home before the evening crowd arrives. If you want the full bang, go for 8pm – but expect to stand for a while, and plan to walk part of the way home rather than queue for the first tram.

Heaton Park

North Manchester’s huge park – around 600 acres, four miles north of the city centre – is the biggest of the three sites and the easiest to reach by public transport. The Heaton Park Metrolink stop on the Bury line sits at one of the park gates, about fifteen minutes from Victoria. Leave the car at home: the tram is far easier than queueing to get out of a car park after the display. Heaton Park is run by Manchester City Council, even though it sits on the edge of Prestwich in Bury.

Wythenshawe Park

The south Manchester display, in the parkland around Wythenshawe Hall. The Wythenshawe Park Metrolink stop is on the Airport line, so this is also the easy option if you are staying near the airport.

Platt Fields Park

On Wilmslow Road between Rusholme and Fallowfield, about two and a half miles south of the city centre. There is no tram here, but buses run along Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road past the park gates every few minutes – check the Bee Network app for the route from where you are – or walk in from the student areas around the universities. Rusholme’s Curry Mile is on the doorstep if you want dinner before or after.

Salford: Buile Hill Park and Prince’s Park

Salford City Council’s free Salford Firework Weekend comes a week earlier than Manchester’s, so you can do both.

Buile Hill Park – Saturday 31 October

• From 4pm, Eccles Old Road, Salford M6 8GL.
• Three displays: the quieter Little Sparks show for younger children, the louder Firecracker display, then the main finale. The council had not published 2026 display times when we checked; in 2025 they ran at 5.30pm, 6.30pm and 7.30pm.
• No bonfire – Salford dropped it at Buile Hill in 2024 to cut carbon. There is a funfair, food and drink, marshmallow toasting and a fire walk instead.
• Free. In 2025 parking was pre-booked at £5; check visitsalford.info for the 2026 arrangements.
• Getting there: there is no station called Buile Hill. The nearest tram stop is Weaste on the Eccles line.

Prince’s Park, Irlam – Sunday 1 November

From 4pm, with a traditional bonfire, a funfair, food and drink and a firework display. Free. It is a local event about nine miles west of the city centre – the one to choose if you live out that way, not one to cross the city for.

Salford’s own advice for both nights is worth repeating: wear proper footwear, because the parks can be muddy and parts of them will be in darkness.

Rochdale’s three free nights: 2–4 November

Rochdale Council puts on a bonfire and a firework display on three consecutive weeknights, in three different towns – all free.

• Middleton – Monday 2 November, Bowlee Community Park, M24 4SB. The closest of the three to Manchester.
• Heywood – Tuesday 3 November, Queen’s Park, Queen’s Park Road, OL10 4JR.
• Rochdale – Wednesday 4 November, Cronkeyshaw Common, OL12 0QR.

All three follow the same pattern: funfair from 6pm, bonfire lit at 7pm, then a reduced-noise firework display set to music at 7.30pm, finishing around 10pm. Entry is free and you just turn up. The rules are strict and worth knowing before you set off: no alcohol – none is sold and you cannot bring your own – and no fireworks or sparklers. There are no toilets on site, parking is limited or non-existent (Cronkeyshaw Common has none), and the council asks people to come by public transport. Food and soft drinks are on sale, and the sites are wheelchair accessible. Full details are on rochdale.gov.uk.

The best ticketed displays

Are the paid displays worth it when the council ones are free? For most visitors, no – the council parks are bigger, free and on public transport. Pay when you want a smaller crowd, a bar, a known finish time or a show built for small children. Some are ticket-only with nothing sold on the gate, so book before you travel.

Bowdon Bonfire, Altrincham – Friday 6 November

One of Greater Manchester’s longest-running club displays, now more than half a century old, held at Bowdon Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club on South Downs Road, WA14 3DT, and raising money for the club. The 2026 running order: children’s firework display at 7pm, a drone light show at 7.20pm (new this year), the bonfire lit at 7.40pm, a second display at 8.10pm and the grand finale at 8.45pm, with the site closing at 10pm. Under-3s go free. Tickets are on Eventbrite; there is no parking on site, so use Altrincham Interchange (tram and train) or a taxi.

Bramhall Fireworks & Music Festival – Friday 6 November

The tenth edition, at Stockport Rugby Club on Headlands Road, Bramhall, SK7 3AN. Gates open at 5pm, a children’s Disney-themed display goes up at 7.15pm and the main anniversary display at 8.45pm, and it runs until 10.30pm, with live music, fire dancers, a funfair, a food court and bars. The organisers say tickets and parking are limited and recommend booking in advance through TryBooking. It is the most festival-like of the paid options.

Stretford Cricket Club – Saturday 7 November

Lesley Road, Stretford, M32 9EE. Gates 5pm, bonfire 6pm, firework displays at 7pm and 8pm. Tickets, sold through Ticketebo, are £8 for adults (16+), £5 for children and £22 for a family of two adults and two children. It is a no-sparkler event – glow sticks are on sale instead – and you can only drink alcohol bought at the bar. There is no wheelchair access to the field itself, only to the patio.

Roe Green Cricket Club, Worsley – Saturday 7 November

Greenleach Lane, M28 2QW. Gates 5pm, bonfire 6pm, a low-noise display at 7pm and the main display at 8pm, finishing at 9pm. Tickets are £10.50 for adults, £8.50 for children aged 2 to 17 and £33 for a family of four, each plus a small booking fee; under-2s go free. It is ticket-only through Ticketebo, with no sales on the gate, and there is no parking at the event or on Greenleach Lane. Bring some cash, because a few of the food and drink traders may not take cards.

Cockfields Farm, Ashton-under-Lyne – Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 November

Lees New Road, OL6 8AR, on the Ashton–Oldham border. The farm opens from 4pm to 8.30pm each night, with a low-bang firework display set to Disney songs at 7pm, plus animal feeding and a carousel. Prices vary from night to night – book at cockfields.co.uk – and the farm is card-only for anything you buy on site. For under-fives, and for anyone who finds a full display too loud, this is the gentlest option in Greater Manchester.

Quieter and sensory-friendly options

Bonfire Night is getting noticeably kinder to anyone who finds full-volume fireworks hard going. Your options in 2026:

• Manchester’s council parks: the 5pm reduced-noise, low-impact displays are aimed squarely at families and SEND audiences.
• Buile Hill Park: the Little Sparks show, the first of Salford’s three.
• Rochdale, Middleton and Heywood: all three displays are reduced-noise and set to music.
• Cockfields Farm: a low-bang display, early in the evening.
• Club displays: Roe Green’s 7pm low-noise display, Bowdon’s 7pm children’s display and Bramhall’s 7.15pm children’s show all come before the main event.
• Printworks: the city-centre leisure venue on Withy Grove has shown digital fireworks on its LED ceiling – which it bills as Europe’s largest digital ceiling – around Bonfire Night in recent years, with no bangs and no smoke. Nothing had been announced for 2026 when we checked.
• Irish World Heritage Centre, Cheetham Hill: has run free displays over two nights in recent years, including a sensory-sensitive night in 2025. Nothing was listed for 2026 at the time of writing.

Whichever you choose, ear defenders for small children are worth packing, and so is a plan for leaving early.

Getting there and getting home

• Heaton Park: Heaton Park Metrolink stop, Bury line, about fifteen minutes from Victoria.
• Wythenshawe Park: Wythenshawe Park Metrolink stop, Airport line.
• Platt Fields Park: buses along Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road; no tram.
• Buile Hill Park: Weaste Metrolink stop, Eccles line.
• Bowdon: Altrincham Interchange, then a taxi or a walk.

Tap in and out with the same contactless card or phone and the daily caps look after the cost – our guide to Manchester transport passes and tickets has the current fares, and our Metrolink guide explains the lines. Metrolink Park & Ride is free with a valid tram ticket and cannot be booked, so arrive early if you want a space.

The crush comes straight after the main displays finish. Waiting twenty minutes in the park, or walking on to the next stop down the line, usually beats queueing on the platform. TfGM does not publish a dedicated Bonfire Night timetable, so check the Bee Network app for live times and planned engineering works, and check whether City, United or Co-op Live have something on the same night – in 2025, Bonfire Night coincided with a Champions League match and a Co-op Live concert.

Bonfire Night history and Manchester’s Guy Fawkes legend

Bonfire Night marks the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby planned to blow up the House of Lords at the State Opening of Parliament and kill King James I. Guy Fawkes was guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar beneath the Lords when he was arrested on the night of 4–5 November. Londoners lit bonfires that same night to celebrate the King’s survival, and the Observance of 5th November Act of 1606 made the date an annual day of thanksgiving – it stayed on the statute book until 1859.

Ordsall Hall

Greater Manchester has its own Gunpowder Plot story. Ordsall Hall in Salford, a Grade I-listed Tudor manor house, was home to the Radclyffes, a prominent Catholic family who knew the Catesbys. Local legend says Fawkes and Catesby met there to plan the plot. There is no evidence for it, and the story owes most to William Harrison Ainsworth’s 1841 novel Guy Fawkes – but the hall is a genuinely fine building and well worth a visit for its own sake. Entry is free; it opens Monday to Thursday 10am–4pm and Sunday 11.30am–4pm, and is closed on Fridays, Saturdays and bank holidays. The nearest tram stop is Exchange Quay. No Bonfire Night events were listed for 2026 when we checked.

Fireworks at home: the law and the safety basics

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) runs an autumn campaign called #BangOutOfOrder, and its first piece of advice is the best one: go to an organised display rather than putting on your own. If you are doing fireworks at home anyway, here is what the law says.

• You must be 18 or over to buy adult fireworks, and under-18s are not allowed to carry fireworks in public.
• Fireworks are banned between 11pm and 7am in England and Wales, except on Bonfire Night (until midnight) and on New Year’s Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year (until 1am).
• Shops without a year-round licence can only sell fireworks from 15 October to 10 November, from 26 to 31 December, and for the three days before Diwali and Chinese New Year.
• Breaking the rules can mean an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison, or a £90 on-the-spot fine.
• Buy only fireworks that carry a UKCA or CE mark.

Sparklers

• Never give a sparkler to a child under five.
• Wear gloves, light one at a time and hold it at arm’s length.
• Put used sparklers straight into a bucket of cold water – they stay hot long after they go out.

Fireworks

• Follow the safety distance on each firework. As a rule, garden fireworks (category F2) need spectators at least 8 metres away and display fireworks (category F3) at least 25 metres.
• Light them at arm’s length with a taper, and never go back to one that has been lit.
• Alcohol and fireworks do not mix.

Bonfires

• Build it at least 18 metres from buildings, trees, fences, overhead cables and parked cars, and no more than 3 metres high.
• Put up a barrier that keeps spectators at least 5 metres back.
• Check that no children or animals – hedgehogs especially – are hiding inside before you light it.
• Never use petrol, paraffin, diesel, white spirit or methylated spirits. Use firelighters.
• Never leave a bonfire unattended.

Pets and Bonfire Night

In Greater Manchester the organised displays run from 31 October to 8 November, with private fireworks on either side, so plan for a fortnight rather than a single night. The RSPCA and Dogs Trust advice comes down to this:

• Walk dogs in daylight, and have them settled indoors before it gets dark.
• Keep cats in, especially after dark.
• Close windows and curtains, and put music or the TV on to mask the bangs.
• Give them a safe den to hide in, and let them hide.
• Stay calm and act normally – pets take their cue from you.
• Talk to your vet well before the season starts about pheromone diffusers or medication; some treatments need to begin before the fireworks do.
• Make sure your pet’s microchip details are up to date.

And leave the dog at home. Even a calm dog will find a display – the noise, the smoke and the crowd – an ordeal.

Bonfire Night food

• Parkin – the sticky oatmeal, treacle and ginger cake of Lancashire and Yorkshire, better after a few days in the tin.
• Treacle toffee – also called bonfire toffee: dark, brittle and hard on the teeth.
• Black peas – parched peas with salt and vinegar, a Lancashire Bonfire Night tradition.
• Jacket potatoes, hot dogs and toffee apples – the staples of every display’s food stalls.

Manchester, Lewes or London?

Lewes in East Sussex has the most famous Bonfire Night in Britain, held on 5 November itself – a Thursday in 2026. Six of its seven bonfire societies process through the streets on the night (the seventh, Nevill Juvenile, holds its own event earlier), with up to 5,000 marchers and crowds of up to 80,000 in a town of about 17,000. Seventeen burning crosses commemorate the Protestant martyrs burned in the town between 1555 and 1557, and a flaming tar barrel ends up in the River Ouse. It is spectacular, but it is a local tradition rather than a visitor event: the stations have been closed on the night in past years, and it is not the place to take small children.

London’s big displays are at Alexandra Palace (its Fireworks & Drone Festival on 7 and 8 November, from £11.50), Battersea Park (7 and 8 November) and Coram’s Fields in Bloomsbury (5 November, free, adults only with a child).

Manchester’s case is breadth: three free council displays on one night, two more in Salford and three in Rochdale the same week, and a ticketed club display within reach of almost anywhere in Greater Manchester.

FAQ – Manchester Bonfire Night

Are there free fireworks in Manchester in 2026?

Yes. Manchester City Council’s free displays return on Saturday 7 November 2026 at Heaton Park, Wythenshawe Park and Platt Fields Park. Salford’s are free on 31 October (Buile Hill Park) and 1 November (Prince’s Park, Irlam), and Rochdale Council’s are free on 2, 3 and 4 November in Middleton, Heywood and Rochdale.

When is Bonfire Night 2026?

Thursday 5 November 2026. Most of the big Greater Manchester displays are on other nights, though – Manchester’s three parks are on Saturday 7 November.

What time are the Heaton Park fireworks?

A reduced-noise display for families and SEND audiences at 5pm, a lantern parade, then the main display at 8pm on Saturday 7 November. Wythenshawe Park and Platt Fields Park follow the same times.

Is there a bonfire at Heaton Park?

None has been announced for any of the three Manchester council displays. If you want a bonfire, Prince’s Park in Irlam, the three Rochdale Council events and most of the club displays have one; Buile Hill Park does not.

Do I need a ticket for the council displays?

No. The Manchester, Salford and Rochdale council displays are all free, with no booking mentioned. The club and farm displays are ticketed, and some do not sell tickets on the gate.

Which fireworks are best for toddlers?

Cockfields Farm’s low-bang 7pm show, the 5pm reduced-noise displays at Manchester’s council parks, and Buile Hill Park’s Little Sparks show are the gentlest options.

What time do fireworks have to stop on Bonfire Night?

Midnight on 5 November. On other nights the cut-off in England and Wales is 11pm, extended to 1am on New Year’s Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year.

Can I take my dog to a fireworks display?

Don’t. Even calm dogs find the noise, smoke and crowds distressing. Leave them at home in a quiet room with the curtains closed, and walk them before dark.

Are there fireworks at the Trafford Centre?

Not in recent years. The centre ran Bonfire-weekend displays in the mid-2010s, but nothing has been announced for 2026.

Was Guy Fawkes ever in Manchester?

Only in legend. The story that he plotted at Ordsall Hall in Salford, home of the Catholic Radclyffe family, has no evidence behind it and was popularised by an 1841 novel.

Planning the Rest of Your Trip

• See everything else on this autumn and winter in our Manchester events and festivals guide.
• Staying on into November? The Manchester Christmas Markets open on Friday 6 November, the day before the council fireworks.
• Our Christmas in Manchester guide covers the rest of the festive season, and the New Year’s Eve guide covers the city-centre countdown.
• For a high-up view of the city on a clear night, see our best rooftop bars in Manchester.
• Bringing children? Our Manchester with kids guide has plenty for the daytime, and our guide to Manchester’s parks covers Heaton, Wythenshawe and the rest when there are no fireworks.
• Getting around: start with getting around Manchester.
• Ordsall Hall is close to the Quays – pair it with our Salford Quays and MediaCityUK guide, or dig deeper with our Manchester history and heritage guide.