Croydon Harvest featuring the Walnut Fair runs 3 and 4 October 2026, noon to 5pm, free. The council's public listing says one day. Its own trading pack says two.

Croydon Harvest featuring the Walnut Fair returns on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October 2026, noon to 5pm, and it is free. It runs across Katharine Street, the Croydon Clocktower, The Queen’s Gardens, the High Street, Surrey Street and the David Lean Cinema, and it is the third edition.

There is one thing to sort out before you plan around it, because Croydon Council publishes the dates two different ways.

One day or two

The council’s public event listing on Culture Croydon gives a single date: 3rd Oct 2026, 12:00pm to 5:00pm. Its events index repeats that. The body text on the same page then calls it “an autumn weekend” and promises free face painting “throughout the weekend”. (Culture Croydon)

The council’s own trading pack settles it. The PDF is headed “Trading at Croydon Harvest 2026, 3 and 4 October, 12pm to 5pm”, and the stallholder call published with it opens applications “to be part of Croydon Harvest, 3-4 October 2026”. (Culture Croydon, 25 August 2026 and its trading information sheet)

Two days is the answer. The trading pack is the document the council is asking traders to commit money to, it is dated later than the listing’s copy, and it matches last year: Croydon Harvest ran 4 and 5 October 2025, also noon to 5pm. (Culture Croydon, 2025)

Until the listing is corrected, treat the public event page as wrong about Sunday. We will re-check it before the weekend and say so here if it changes.

What is on

Nearly everything is free. The trading pack says so plainly: “Nearly all activities will be free (some exceptions around booked craft workshops).”

  • A petting farm in The Queen’s Gardens, run by Vauxhall City Farm, with sheep, goats and other animals
  • The Learned Pig, a new walkabout commission by artist Matt Rudkin, billed as the first fortune-telling pig in Croydon since the Walnut Fairs of the 1790s
  • Farm Yard Circus, acrobatics, juggling and live music
  • Small World Cinema at the David Lean Cinema, including Cinemini activities for toddlers and a family screening of Oink
  • See Saw by Reallynice, a sensory circus session in small groups for disabled and neurodivergent children, including children with complex needs, and their companions
  • TOAST by Pif-Paf Theatre, and fruit and vegetable carving with Fruitima, which the council says has accessible formats and child-friendly tools
  • Folk music and dance from Ninotchka, Daria Kulesh, The Fieldcaps, Magic Number, Orleta and JÁNUKA
  • Harvest Moon Harvest Home, a collaborative artwork with artist Jenny Steele, plus historic pub tours, Surrey Street wanderings and a new Vic Lee artwork about the fair itself
  • Free face painting across the event

The craft workshops are the exception to the free rule, and they are the ones that need booking. The council has not published a booking link or a price for them yet.

The market, and what Surrey Street does that weekend

Stalls sit in shared marquees on Katharine Street opposite the Clocktower, each pitch 3m by 3m, with up to two trestle tables and two chairs provided. Traders on Surrey Street bring their own gazebos, 3m by 3m maximum, and food trucks are welcome there.

The detail worth knowing if you shop the street market: the normal Surrey Street market trades as usual on the Saturday, and runs at reduced scale on the Sunday. So Saturday is the busier of the two days on that street, and Sunday is the quieter one.

Traders pay only the mandatory trading licence, £10 to £20 a day depending on location and day, and anyone selling alcohol to drink at the event needs a temporary event notice. Applications close at 11.59pm on Sunday 13 September 2026, by email to croydonharvest@gmail.com.

How big it actually gets

The council publishes its own attendance figures in the trading pack, and it is honest about a bad year.

Year Attendance Note
2024 6,000 combined over the two days
2025 4,000 “impacted by Storm Amy”

It also reports that 73% of visitors came into town especially for the event, 55% stayed three hours or more, and 55% spent money in the town centre while they were there. Leaflets go to 10,000 homes.

Those are the organiser’s own numbers, not an independent count, and the 2025 figure has a storm in it. Treat 6,000 across a dry weekend as the realistic ceiling so far.

Why a walnut fair

The Walnut Fair is not a marketing invention. The trading pack dates it to September 1314, and says it moved to October when the Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1752. It was originally held in Surrey Street and Middle Row, drew pilgrims travelling to Canterbury, and was later moved to Fair Field because the crowds outgrew the street.

The last fair was in 1868. The council’s own account of why is blunt: like many travelling fairs it was “ultimately being closed down for being too bawdy”.

Getting there

Everything is within a few minutes’ walk of East Croydon station and the George Street and Church Street tram stops. The Queen’s Gardens sits behind the Town Hall on Park Lane, and the Clocktower is on Katharine Street.

If you are driving, our parking in Croydon page has the council’s tariffs and the gap between the cheap and expensive car parks, and roadworks and travel covers anything closed on the approach. Katharine Street and Surrey Street both carry stalls across the weekend. No road closure order for the event has been published, so we cannot say which streets shut or when.

For the rest of the season, see Croydon pantomime, Croydon Christmas lights and Croydon fireworks and bonfire night.