Croydon Fireworks: No Council Display, 3 That Do Run

Croydon does not have a borough fireworks display. The council has not run one since 2016, the Wandle Park funfair-and-fireworks night stopped after 2019, and neither Croydon BID’s events calendar nor Purley BID’s lists one.

That is the answer most people searching for this are actually looking for, and it is worth stating plainly before the listings sites sell you a display that closed years ago. ukfireworksdisplays.co.uk still heads a page “Fireworks Displays in Croydon for 2026” and lists exactly one entry: the Wandle Park funfair and fireworks, with the 2016 running order and no date on it at all. That event has not been advertised since 2019.

Three displays inside the borough did run in 2025, all run by volunteers for local charities, and this page tracks them. The biggest is at Atwood Primary School in Sanderstead, and it has sold out three years running.

Bonfire night 2026 falls on Thursday 5 November, so the displays that do happen will cluster on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November.

What the council used to run, and when it stopped

The last time Croydon Council promoted its own fireworks was 26 October 2016, when its newsroom listed two events:

• Addington Park Halloween fireworks, Kent Gate Way, Saturday 29 October, 5.30pm to 9.30pm, £3 per person or £10 for a group of four, with funfair rides
• Wandle Park funfair and fireworks, Friday 4 November, 4.30pm to 9pm, £5 per person, with a stunt show that included a fire run world record attempt

(Croydon Council newsroom, 26 October 2016)

The Wandle Park event carried on for a few more years without a council announcement. The East Croydon Community Organisation, which lists local events as they are advertised, recorded it on Friday 2 November 2018 from 5pm, £5 entry, and on Saturday 9 November 2019 from 5pm. There is no listing for it after that. (East Croydon Community Organisation)

The council’s own record of licensed public events in its parks logs one later display: Funpark Fun Fair and Fireworks at Addington Park, Kent Gate Way, CR0 5AR, Saturday 13 November 2021, 1pm to 9.30pm, ticketed in advance. That is the last fireworks entry in it.

And that calendar is dead. It is a public Google Calendar embedded on the council’s parks pages under the heading “View public events on the calendar below”. Reading its iCal feed directly, it holds 51 events, the last of which was the Summer Beach Festival on 26 July 2024, and the most recent edit to any entry was 19 July 2024. Two firework seasons and two Christmas seasons have passed with nothing added. If you land on it and find it empty, that is why.

The three displays that ran in 2025

Sanderstead Fireworks, Atwood Primary School

The borough’s biggest community display, and the one that sells out. It is run by the Friends of Atwood Primary (registered charity 1112103) on the school field at Atwood Primary School, Limpsfield Road, CR2 9EE, and the school’s own page lists the “Sanderstead Annual Fireworks Event” first among its annual fundraisers. (Pegasus Academy Trust)

The timings have not moved in four years: gates 4.30pm, display 6.15pm.

Prices have not moved either. In 2025 they were early bird £16 family of four (maximum two adults), £7 adult, £5 child aged 2 to 15, under 2s free, rising at the early bird deadline to £20, £8 and £6, with a 50p booking fee per online order. Full price tickets stay on sale until gates open, subject to availability. (Friends of Atwood Primary, 2025 listing)

The 2026 event is not on sale as of 3 September 2026. The Friends of Atwood box office reads “No events currently listed”. The early bird deadline was 6 October in 2023, 6 October in 2024 and 10 October in 2025, so tickets have gone live in September in each of the last three years. Expect the listing this month.

No sparklers, no fireworks of your own, no alcohol, glass, outside food or drink, bags may be checked, and under 16s must be with an adult. Access requirements go to contactatwoodpa@gmail.com.

Park Hill Schools’ Association

The borough’s most consistent display. It is held at Park Hill Junior School, Stanhope Road, CR0 5NS, about ten minutes’ walk from East Croydon station, and every penny goes to Park Hill Infant and Junior schools.

(East Croydon Community Organisation listings)

Every one of those is the Friday closest to 5 November. On that pattern the 2026 date would be Friday 6 November, though that is our arithmetic, not the association’s announcement. Tickets are sold through pta-events.co.uk, which is currently behind a bot check we cannot read, so we cannot confirm whether 2026 is on sale. The association’s own announcements have landed in the last week of October in past years.

Sandilands Fireworks and Food Fiesta

Held at Sandilands Sports Club, Sandilands, CR0, and organised by Mynd Spirit rather than by the club itself, with the proceeds going to the club. The 2025 event was listed for Saturday 8 November from 5pm, booked through ticketsource.co.uk/myndspirit. (East Croydon Community Organisation, 6 November 2025)

A 2024 edition exists on the same ticketing platform under the name Sandilands Fireworks Fiesta 2024, so 2025 was at least its second year. TicketSource blocks automated reading, so we cannot confirm the 2026 date or whether tickets are live. The club’s number is 020 8654 5449.

Two things that look like Croydon displays and are not

Croydon Road Recreation Ground is in Bromley. Beckenham’s large Fireworks in the Park event is held there, and the road name pulls it into every “Croydon fireworks” search result. The park is a Bromley Council park in Beckenham, listed in the council’s own directory. (Bromley Council) It is about six miles from Croydon town centre, and it is not Croydon’s.

It is, however, the only display near Croydon with a confirmed 2026 date. The organisers, the 5th Beckenham South Scout Group, have Saturday 7 November 2026 at Croydon Road Recreation Ground on their own website, with no ticket details yet and a mailing list as the only way to be told when they go on sale. (Beckenham Charity Fireworks) If you want a big display and the borough’s own three do not suit, that is the fallback.

The fire station’s bonfire night event is not a fireworks display. London Fire Brigade’s Blue Watch at Croydon Fire Station ran an accessible Bonfire Night event on 5 November 2025 for young people with additional needs and their families, with themed light displays, artificial snow, a bubble tunnel, the watch tower lit in different colours, a quiet sensory space in the garden, and a ramp built so wheelchair users could get into a fire engine. There were no fireworks: the whole point was an alternative for people who find displays inaccessible, and the Brigade says so, noting that autistic people often struggle with the noise and crowds and that grass is hard to cross in many wheelchairs.

It is an open, free, bookable event rather than a closed one. The Brigade calls the series “a range of open events for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)”, says this one “welcomed hundreds of families”, and the 2025 listing asked for advance booking because capacity was limited. It has now run twice on bonfire night, in November 2024 and November 2025, alongside a summer edition, all led by Station Officer Daniel Foster, who said he was “already thinking about what we can do next”. That is a series building, not a one-off, though the Brigade has published nothing for 2026 and its 2025 event page has since been taken down. (London Fire Brigade, 5 November 2025)

One switch-on that does have fireworks

If you want fireworks and you are prepared to wait three weeks, New Addington’s Christmas lights event on Central Parade has included them. The council’s licensed events record for Saturday 25 November 2023, 12pm to 8pm, describes the event as “Funfair, Food, Santa & Fireworks”. No 2026 date is published. We track it on our Croydon Christmas lights page.

What we will do with this page

Sanderstead’s tickets go live in September and the other two announce late, in the last week of October. We will check all three through October and update this page with dates, gate times and prices as they appear, and we will say plainly if any of them does not return.

If you are driving to a display, our parking in Croydon page has the council’s tariffs, and roadworks and travel covers anything closed on the approach. Streets around Park Hill, Sandilands and Limpsfield Road are residential and unrestricted at that hour, which means they fill early.