Tickets for the big weekend displays start at around 11 pounds and climb past 18, and some of the free options have vanished.
LONDON, England (Big Smoke Broke) – Bonfire Night itself has come and gone, but the capital’s real fireworks season is still ahead of us this weekend. The old days of standing in a cold park with a paper cup of tea and watching the sky for nothing are not quite over, but the ticketed version is now the main event, and it comes with a price tag worth checking before you set off.
What a ticketed display costs
According to Time Out’s guide to displays that still had tickets, most of the big shows fall on the weekend of 7 and 8 November, with the exception of Wimbledon Park, which ran on the night itself. The article, last dated 4 November, lists these starting prices:
- Alexandra Palace Fireworks and Drone Festival, north London: from 11.50 pounds, Saturday and Sunday.
- Blackheath Fireworks: from 17.60 pounds, Saturday only.
- Battersea Park Fireworks: from 18.60 pounds for adults, Saturday and Sunday, on what it calls final release.
- Wimbledon Park: from 15.60 pounds for adults, with resale tickets available.
Those are adult prices at the cheapest tier, so treat them as a floor rather than a promise. A couple heading to Battersea would be looking at roughly 37 pounds before a single hot dog, while a pair at Alexandra Palace would pay around 23 pounds at the entry price. Children’s tickets are priced differently and vary by event, so I have not tried to guess a family total.
What you get for the money differs. Time Out says Alexandra Palace pairs hundreds of fireworks with drone shows, a bonfire, a German beer festival and an ice rink. Battersea Park offers a disco ceilidh and a DJ set from Rudimental on Saturday, and a Taylor Swift tribute act on Sunday, with street food and fairground rides both days. Blackheath, which returned in 2025 after a six-year break, now has a much larger site with room for 10,000 more people. That is good news if you hate queues and bad news if you hate crowds.
The free displays are thinner than you remember
ianVisits’ long list of London displays, published in early October and updated later that month, listed only two free events: Coram’s Fields in Camden, where adults are only admitted if accompanied by a child, and Cassiobury Park in Watford. Time Out’s list, written later, says Coram’s Fields has already sold out, along with Dulwich and Walthamstow Cricket Club, which suggests that the free and cheap options go quickly. If you are planning a last-minute trip, check the organiser’s page rather than trusting any single list.
ianVisits also lists paid events across a wide range of prices, from around six pounds at a display in South Croydon to 20 pounds at Woodford, with plenty in the 10 to 18 pound range. Its author points out that many venues let you see the top half of a display for free from outside, and that paying supports local charities. That is a fair point either way: the fireworks are not free to put on.
Where to go in north and east London
Skiddle’s roundup of London displays, published in late October, groups events by area. In north London it lists the Alexandra Palace festival in Haringey, where Saturday is described as the party night and Sunday as a smaller family day, plus a drone and fireworks show at the Walker Ground in Southgate on Saturday, from 7.30pm. In the west, Ealing Cricket Club is hosting a combined Diwali and Bonfire Night event with a lantern parade, and Harrow’s Byron Park has a Bollywood and Diwali-themed evening, both on Saturday.
In the east, the Stow display in Walthamstow runs across three nights from Thursday to Saturday, with a food village and a funfair. Skiddle notes it does not list any fully free events, which matches ianVisits’ picture of how scarce they are.
Is it worth it?
I am torn. City AM’s May look at cheap London pints put the average pint in the capital at 5.77 pounds, so the cheapest Alexandra Palace ticket costs about two of them, and the evening lasts rather longer. On the other hand, a family that budgets carefully for everything else in this city may reasonably decide that a night in with a flask is the better use of 40 pounds. Neither is wrong.
If you do go, buy from the organiser, avoid resale sites that charge extra unless you have no choice, and decide in advance whether the food stalls are part of the budget. The cheapest route to a good night out is still a short walk to a park, a warm coat and low expectations.
For the comedy side of a London weekend, The London Prat is where I also write, and its London humor news is a good place to start. There is a short guide on how to spot a joke in the news, and a Cockney rhyming slang explainer for describing the queue at the burger van with confidence. Bohiney Magazine has more, and you can read more of my London life and politics reporting at The London Prat.
Wrap up warm, keep an eye on the clock, and enjoy the sky.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/