The free Preston Park display is absent from the council's own 2026 outdoor events programme. What that leaves for bonfire night in Brighton and Hove, and when the Hove county ground display usually goes on sale.

Bonfire night 2026 falls on Thursday 5 November, and the honest position in Brighton and Hove today is that the city’s biggest free display is not on the council’s list for this year. Preston Park has held the Coles funfair and fireworks for years. It is in the council’s 2025 outdoor events programme in black and white. It is not in the 2026 one.

Everything below was checked on 4 September 2026 against the council’s own published programme and the organisers’ own sites. Where a display has not announced this year, this page says so rather than filling the gap with last year’s date.

What the council’s own 2026 programme says

Brighton & Hove City Council publishes a list of every event booked onto its open spaces. The 2026 programme, signed off in January, runs to the end of the year and its last three entries are these:

Event Date Where Capacity
RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run Sunday 1 November Madeira Drive and Black Rock 1,200 participants
Brighton 10k Sunday 16 November (or 9 November) Hove Lawns and Madeira Drive not stated
Burning the Clocks Monday 21 December Madeira Drive 12,000

There is no fireworks event anywhere in October or November. The last Coles funfair of the 2026 season is booked for The Level, 10 to 20 September, and after that the company does not appear again all year.

Compare the 2025 programme, which carries a row reading “Coles Funfair and Fireworks, Fri 31st Oct to Sat 1st Nov, Preston Park, Open Access, Fairground Rides and Fireworks”. The 2026 document has no equivalent line.

Two other checks point the same way. The council’s live outdoor events page lists nothing between the Rise 8k on 18 October and the veteran car run on 1 November. And the Friends of Preston Park, who minute what is coming to the park, listed the Coles funfair and kite festival for 4 and 5 July this year and nothing for the autumn.

The caveat, stated plainly. The programme is a snapshot taken in January and events do get added to it during the year. The council calls the web version “a brief overview”. So this is not a cancellation announcement, and nobody has published one. It is the absence of a booking in the two places a booking would normally show, two months before the date. If it reappears, this page will be updated.

The display that is most likely to run: Hove county ground

The 1st Central County Ground on Eaton Road, Hove has run a fireworks night for years, and it is ticketed rather than free. Sussex Cricket has not put up a 2026 page yet, so nothing below is a 2026 fact. It is the shape of the event, so you know what to watch for.

  • 2025: Saturday 1 November. Gates 6pm, fireworks about 7.30pm.
  • 2023: Saturday 4 November. Gates 5.30pm, display about 7.30pm, capacity 9,000.
  • 2019: Tuesday 5 November itself. Gates 6pm, display 7.30pm, and more than 7,000 people came.

So the pattern is bonfire night itself or the nearest Saturday, gates two hours before, display at half past seven. In 2026 that would put it on Thursday 5 November or Saturday 7 November, but the club has not said.

2025 prices, for reference only: seated £22.50 adult and £17.50 under-16, standing £15.00 and £12.50, wheelchair £15.00, and premium seats in the Spen Cama Pavilion £30 and £20. Under-3s free but still needed a ticket. The early bird cut-off was 8 October.

The thing worth knowing is that it sells out. In 2025 the premium suites went first, then the club posted a sold-out notice. If you want this one, watch sussexcricket.co.uk from late September, because the announcement has landed in the first week of October in past years and the cheap tickets go with the early bird deadline.

Lewes is eight miles away and asks you not to come

Every year a large number of Brighton people decide to go to Lewes bonfire on 5 November. Lewes District Council and the emergency services publish the same request each year: if you are not a Lewes resident, go to a display closer to home. It is not a ticketed event and it is not managed for visitor numbers.

If you go anyway, the trains are the part that catches people out. In recent years no trains have called at Lewes, Glynde or Southease after 5pm, and none at Falmer after about 6.40pm, with nothing stopping again until the next morning. Lewes town centre roads close in the afternoon. Check the council’s Lewes bonfire travel page for this year’s exact times before you plan anything around it, because the cut-offs move.

What to do if you just want to see something on the night

  • Watch the county ground announcement. It is the only display of scale inside the city that has a track record, and it is a five-minute walk from Hove station.
  • Check for a late Preston Park booking. The council’s outdoor events page is where it would appear first.
  • Look at the villages. Sussex bonfire societies run processions and displays across the county through October and early November, most of them on Saturdays, most of them free to watch and funded by collection.
  • Do not drive to a display. Nothing near the seafront or Preston Park has parking laid on for an event, and the residents’ zones stay in force. Our Brighton parking guide has the tariffs and the zone map.

Before you set off

Roads change fast around any November event. The council seals temporary orders in batches and they only appear on the register once signed, so a closure can be real and unpublished at the same time. Check the Brighton roadworks and travel page on the day, and note that the Western Road reconstruction between Holland Road and Montpelier Road is due to run through the autumn.

Still to be confirmed, and when to expect it: the Hove county ground date and prices, expected late September or early October. Any Preston Park booking, which would show on the council’s events page whenever it is made. This page will be updated when either lands.