Burning the Clocks Is Back: Monday 21 December on the Beach

Burning the Clocks returns on Monday 21 December 2026, after skipping 2025 entirely. Same Sky, the Brighton charity that has run the solstice parade since the 1990s, says it will be back “in-full”, and the council has it booked onto Madeira Drive with a capacity of 12,000.

It is free and unticketed to watch. Walking in it is a different matter, and that is the part worth reading before December.

Why there was nothing last year

Same Sky announced a fallow year rather than a cancellation. In its own words: “Burning the Clocks will be taking a fallow year in 2025. This is to allow us time to focus our resources and to strategically review and secure the long-term future for Same Sky.” The charity, number 1042454, has been running community arts projects in the city since 1987 and said it had faced “immense funding challenges” alongside other small arts charities.

The same statement commits to this year: “Burning the Clocks will return in-full in 2026.” The 2026 effigy was already commissioned when that went up, with the theme “Magicada”, described as “representing a symbolic rest followed by a noisy awakening”. The lantern sculpture was designed and built by Same Sky associate artist Nikki Gunson, and it was put on public display in central Brighton on 21 December 2025, on the night the parade would have been.

What is confirmed, and what is not

Confirmed. The date and place. Brighton & Hove City Council’s 2026 outdoor events programme lists “Burning the Clocks, Monday 21st December, Madeira Drive, 12,000”. The council’s live events page carries the same date and describes it as a winter solstice parade with paper lanterns. VisitBrighton lists it for 21 December 2026 on the lower esplanade at Madeira Drive, BN2 1PS.

Not confirmed. Times, the parade route, when lantern packs go on sale, and whether the funding is fully in place. Same Sky’s website has published none of it yet, and its events page was empty when we checked on 4 September. Announcements have historically come in November.

One honest caveat about that council listing. The council’s 2025 programme also carried Burning the Clocks, for 21 December 2025, and it did not happen; Same Sky pulled it the following July. A line in the events programme is a booking, not a guarantee. The difference this year is that the organiser has published its own commitment to return and has already commissioned the effigy.

What the evening looks like

The parade forms up in the city centre in the early evening, moves through the streets to the seafront, and ends on the beach below Madeira Drive. Same Sky describes it as a procession of luminous lanterns and a 2,000-strong parade, where “people pass their handmade paper and willow lanterns filled symbolically with their hopes and dreams into a blazing bonfire, followed by a spectacular fire show and firework display”.

The burn itself is the point. The effigy is built to house the community lanterns, which fuel it, and the fireworks are buried inside the structure so they go off as it collapses. Pyrotechnics have been supplied by BrightFire.

Listings for the 2024 parade put the start at 6.30pm from New Road, arrival at Madeira Drive around 7.15pm and the burn and fireworks from about 7.30pm, finishing between 8pm and 8.30pm. Treat that as the shape of the night, not this year’s timetable. Same Sky has published nothing for 2026 and the times have moved before.

If you want to be in the parade rather than watch it

This is the bit people miss. In recent years you could not simply join the procession: you needed a wristband, and wristbands came with a lantern pack.

Same Sky’s own 2024 guidance said each pack “include everything you need to make two lanterns and gain four wristbands to participate in the parade”. Packs were sold at Book Nook in Hove and Infinity Foods in the city centre, and online with collection from the Same Sky warehouse. They sold out before the event.

So if being in it matters to you, watch samesky.co.uk and the charity’s social accounts from early November, and buy early. The other routes in are volunteering, which Same Sky recruits for across lantern distribution, logistics and stewarding, and community lantern workshops run with schools and groups.

The event has been funded by a mix of Arts Council England money, a public crowdfunder and lantern pack sales. Given the reason for the fallow year, the crowdfunder is likely to matter more than usual this time.

Getting there and getting home

Madeira Drive is on the seafront east of the Palace Pier, about 20 minutes’ walk from Brighton station. Do not plan on parking near it. The road itself is closed for the event and the streets above fill up; the Marine Parade clifftop is where most people end up watching from anyway, and it is free. Our Brighton parking guide has the seafront tariffs if you need them.

21 December 2026 is a Monday, which is worth noting if you are coming in from outside the city: it is a normal working Monday, and the last trains out are a weekday timetable, not a Saturday one.

No temporary traffic order for 21 December had been published as of 4 September. Closures are usually sealed a few weeks out, so check the roadworks and travel page nearer the time.

Expected next: times, route and lantern pack details from Same Sky, most likely in November. This page will be updated when they land.