Croydon Harvest 2026 ran free on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, noon to 5pm. The full programme, paid extras and Katharine Street closure, kept for the record.
Croydon Harvest featuring the Walnut Fair has finished for 2026. It ran on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, with the main events from noon to 5pm, and it was 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.
Updated 3 October: the council’s listing now gives both days, matching its trading pack, and the printed programme is out with set times, the paid events and a Katharine Street road closure.
Times for the weekend
These come from the council’s printed programme, which warns that “timings and locations may change, especially so in the case of poor weather”. (Croydon Harvest programme, PDF)
- Vauxhall City Farm is in The Queen’s Gardens from noon to 5pm on both days.
- Farm Yard Circus plays The Queen’s Gardens at 1.15pm and 4pm, both days.
- The Learned Pig walks the town at 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.15pm on Saturday and 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.30pm on Sunday, starting in a different street each time.
- The folk bandstand on Katharine Street, new this year, opens with Ninotchka at noon each day. Saturday closes with Ninotchka at 4.30pm, Sunday with San Halen at 4.30pm.
- Face painting with Atelier Arzu runs 12.30pm to 4pm on the High Street.
- Cinemini for under fives is 10.30am to 11.30am in Braithwaite Hall, both days.
- The information tent is on Katharine Street. Toilets and first aid are in the Clocktower, and there is a Changing Places toilet on the High Street.
New this year is a beer tent hosted by The Oval Tavern.
The paid events
The council says nearly everything is free. Four things are not, according to the programme:
| Event | Price | When and where |
|---|---|---|
| Historic Pub Tour | £5, book ahead | Saturday 2pm and 7pm, from the Queen Victoria statue, Katharine Street |
| Surrey Street Wanderings | £2, book ahead | Saturday 11am and 2pm, from Croydon Archive in the Clocktower |
| Small World Cinema film and workshop | £6 | noon both days, David Lean Cinema |
| See Saw sensory circus | £5 family ticket | 11am and 2.15pm both days, High Street |
The 11am See Saw show is the quieter one, aimed particularly at children with complex needs and their families. For the 2.15pm show there is a free waiting list at the information desk from noon on the day, and you must be at the See Saw tent by 2.10pm to take a place. Booking is through Eventbrite.
One day or two: settled
Until this week the council published the dates two ways. Its public listing on Culture Croydon gave a single date, 3 October, while the same page’s text described “an autumn weekend”, and the trading pack sent to stallholders said “Trading at Croydon Harvest 2026, 3 and 4 October, 12pm to 5pm”. We went with the trading pack. The listing now reads “3rd - 4th Oct 2026, 12:00pm - 5:00pm”, so the two agree. (Culture Croydon and its trading information sheet)
It matches last year, when Croydon Harvest ran 4 and 5 October 2025, also noon to 5pm. (Culture Croydon, 2025)
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 on the High Street and Katharine Street, from courgette carving to Vietnamese lantern making, are listed in the programme without a price, and none of them appears in its list of events that need booking.
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. The programme says Katharine Street is closed to traffic for the festival and that “all other roads remain open”. Surrey Street carries stalls and food trucks, so expect it to be slow on foot.
For the rest of the season, see Croydon pantomime, Croydon Christmas lights and Croydon fireworks and bonfire night.
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