Bonfire Night in Durham 2026: Fireworks by the River and Beyond

Bonfire Night 2026 falls on Thursday 5 November, but that is not when most of County Durham lights its fireworks. Almost every organised display here has moved to the nearest weekend, meaning Sunday 1 November or Saturday 7 November, so check the date before you wrap the children up and set off.

The good news for Durham City is that you do not have to leave it. The rowing club's display is the only one you can genuinely walk to from the centre, and it is the cheapest organised night in the area by some distance.

Fireworks by the River at Durham ARC, Sunday 1 November

Durham Amateur Rowing Club holds Fireworks by the River at the City Boathouse on Green Lane, off Old Elvet (DH1 3JU). The fireworks go up over the Wear from the boathouse, which is the whole appeal: instead of driving out to a dark field, you walk down from the Market Place along the river and watch them reflected in it.

Gates open at 5pm on Sunday 1 November, the display goes up at around 7pm, and the bar stays open until 9pm afterwards. Tickets are £4.50 for adults (13 and over), £3.50 for children aged four to 12 and free for under-fours, plus a small booking fee, sold online in advance rather than on the gate.

Be honest with yourself about the scale: this is a rowing club raising money, not a municipal spectacular, so the display is shorter and smaller than the county ground's. What it has instead is location, price and a clubhouse atmosphere with a bar and food.

One booking trap is worth knowing. The club's ticket store still holds the old 2024 listing, and the un-suffixed link serves that ended event. The live page is the one whose address ends in "-2026", so check the year before you pay. At the time of writing the club's own website had not caught up with the announcement either, so the ticket store is the place to book.

Best for: Best for anyone who wants fireworks without a car, and the cheapest tickets in the area.

Festival of Fireworks at Durham Cricket, Saturday 7 November

The county's biggest display belongs to Durham Cricket at the Riverside in Chester-le-Street, seven miles north of the city. The Festival of Fireworks uses the ground itself, with the crowd on the outfield and Lumley Castle floodlit on the hill behind. Few venues in England can match that backdrop.

The fireworks go up at 7.30pm on Saturday 7 November. The club has not published a gates time for 2026, but the car parks are stewarded from 4pm, so there is no need to leave it late. Tickets are £11 for adults, £7 for juniors aged three to 15 and £29 for a family package, with under-twos free. Parking is a separate £7 per vehicle and includes Blue Badge spaces.

Both premium suite tiers had already sold out by late September, so the indoor option is effectively gone for this year.

Best for: Best for the biggest display in County Durham and a setting worth the drive.

On Bonfire Night itself, Thursday 5 November

Two options within reach actually run on 5 November. Spennymoor's fireworks at High Whitworth Playing Fields (DL16 6JJ), about six miles south, run from 5pm to 8pm with the fireworks and a new flame show at 6.30pm. Entry is free but ticketed, and tickets are not online: collect them from Spennymoor Town Hall from Monday 12 October, weekdays 9am to 4pm, with proof of address and a limit of six per family. Any left after 26 October go to people living outside the town, which is the date to watch if you are coming from Durham.

Hardwick Hall Hotel at Sedgefield, about 11 miles away, is running its Fireworks Extravaganza twice this year, on Thursday 5 November and again on Saturday 7 November. Gates are at 5pm both nights and it finishes around 8.30pm. Entry is £7 for anyone aged six and over and free for under-fives, who still need a free ticket added to the basket. Parking is advance-only at £3.50 a car with none sold on the night, so book it with your entry tickets.

Down on the coast: Seaham, Sunday 1 November

Seaham's free fireworks are about nine miles east. The evening runs from 5pm to 9pm on Sunday 1 November with the display at 6.30pm, fired over the marina and seafront with the North Sea behind. Terrace Green is the usual gathering point, and because people spread along the front it feels less crowded than the numbers suggest.

Coxhoe will not be back this year

Worth flagging if it was your family's annual fixture: the long-running Coxhoe display is not returning in 2026. The parish council confirmed in January that a housing development beside Coxhoe Park means the safety perimeter a display of that size needs can no longer be achieved on the site. A genuine loss for the villages south of the city.

A few practical notes

Most organised displays ban sparklers and personal fireworks on site, so leave them at home rather than arguing with a steward. Dogs are better left at home too, ideally indoors with the curtains drawn and something noisy on.

If you have young children or anyone who struggles with noise, look at the earlier starts. Seaham and Spennymoor both fire at 6.30pm and Hardwick Hall is finished by 8.30pm, all of which beat a 7.30pm display on a school night. Wrap up warmly for the riverside sites, where the damp comes off the water.

After the ARC display, the walk back up Old Elvet puts you past The Dun Cow and the Half Moon Inn on New Elvet, both a sensible place to thaw out before heading home. For displays further afield across Tyneside and Northumberland, our regional Bonfire Night guide rounds up the lot.

Know of another Durham display we have missed? Get in touch and we will check it out.