Buckingham's free bonfire and fireworks runs 6pm to 8pm on Saturday 31 October at Bourton Park, with a torch-lit parade. Aylesbury's display is 22 November.

The biggest free bonfire night display in the district now has a date. Buckingham Bonfire and Fireworks is on Saturday 31 October 2026 at Bourton Park Paddock. It runs from 6pm to 8pm, with a torch-lit parade, a bonfire and fireworks. Buckingham is about 15 miles north-west of Aylesbury.

Updated 6 October: Buckingham Town Council has published the full programme. The event runs 6pm to 8pm, adds a torch-lit parade and live music, bans personal fireworks and sparklers, and asks drivers to use Cornwalls Meadow car park.

Updated 30 September: Buckingham Town Council has listed its 2026 bonfire and fireworks for Saturday 31 October. No other display in the Aylesbury area has published a 2026 date yet.

Aylesbury town’s own fireworks are on 22 November, at the end of the Christmas lights switch-on. The village and school displays usually publish in early to mid October, and this page will be updated as they land.

The one confirmed display: 22 November, not 5 November

Aylesbury town’s fireworks are not a bonfire night thing. They are the finale of Christmas on the Cobbles, the Christmas lights switch-on, which Aylesbury Town Council has confirmed for Sunday 22 November 2026, 12pm to 6pm in the town centre. The illuminated parade starts at 5pm, the lights go on at the end of it, and the fireworks follow. Free.

Full detail on our Christmas lights switch-on page.

Aylesbury Town Council lists no bonfire or fireworks event at all in its events calendar for early November 2026. What it has for that fortnight is a play at Queens Park Arts Centre, an artisan craft fair and a Nature Tots session.

Buckingham: Saturday 31 October, Bourton Park

Buckingham Bonfire and Fireworks at Bourton Park Paddock is the largest free display in this district. Buckingham Town Council’s page for it describes a free event with hot food and drink near the play areas, music, a display by Titanium Fireworks, and a bonfire built from pallets donated by local building firms. The bonfire is lit after the fireworks so its light does not wash out the display, and the council says it is checked for hedgehogs before it goes up.

Its stated reason for running it is worth quoting, because it explains why it is free: a public display “reduces the number of individual fireworks displays across town, cutting down on noise pollution”.

The council published the full 2026 programme on 5 October in a second listing. Its details:

  • Saturday 31 October, Bourton Park Paddock, Buckingham
  • runs 6pm to 8pm; the council’s earlier listing puts the fireworks at 7pm
  • a torch-lit parade, the bonfire, the fireworks and live music from DJ Dan Blaze
  • food and drink from J&L Snacks, Silverstone Brewery and Crazy Bird, and glow products from Mr Glow
  • free
  • personal fireworks and sparklers are banned on site, and stewards’ instructions apply

Neither listing mentions road closures. On 5 September the date was missing from the calendar, and we said so here. It went up later in the month.

For reference, the recent dates were Saturday 6 November 2021 (gates 6pm, fireworks 7pm) and Saturday 1 November 2025, both from the council’s own listings. In 2019 the event was cancelled. This year it is again the Saturday before bonfire night.

Bonfire night 2026 falls on a Thursday

5 November 2026 is a Thursday. That matters for planning: community displays almost always move to the nearest Saturday, which gives you Saturday 31 October and Saturday 7 November as the two likely dates for anything local. Buckingham has taken 31 October. Expect the rest to land on one of those two dates.

The village and community displays

Two others in this patch have a track record, and neither has published anything for 2026:

  • Green Ridge Primary Academy PTA, Berryfields. The school’s own PTA page lists a Fireworks Night among the events it runs each year, alongside the summer fete and festive fun. It is a ticketed fundraiser rather than a free display. No 2026 date is published on the school site.
  • Brill. The village has run a fireworks night at Brill Playing Fields with a lantern parade setting off from The Pheasant beforehand, tickets from Brill Stores or on the gate. The 2024 listing gave 2 November, fireworks at 7pm, lantern parade 6.15pm. The 2025 listing gave 1 November with the display at 7pm. Nothing for 2026 when we checked on 6 October.

Aylesbury Rugby Club at Ostlers Field, Weston Turville has run a family fireworks evening in the past, but its own listing for it is a members only event, so it is not a public display and should not be planned around.

What to do if you want a display this year

  • Keep checking through October. Buckingham published on time; the school PTAs and village displays had still not posted 2026 dates by 6 October.
  • For Buckingham, use the 2026 event listing or the town council’s news page, not its annual events page. The annual events page has not been updated since April 2023 and carries no dates at all.
  • Book early for the ticketed ones. School PTA displays in Berryfields and the villages are small-capacity and sell out.
  • Do not rely on the aggregator sites. Several national fireworks directories were still serving 2025 dates under a 2026 heading when we checked, including displays that had already happened.

Getting there and parking

Bourton Park in Buckingham has no dedicated event car park. The town council asks people to walk if they can; drivers should use Cornwalls Meadow car park and follow the marked route through the park to the paddock. It warns that parking close to the site is “extremely limited”. For Aylesbury town centre on 22 November, Market Square and Kingsbury are closed to traffic and the nearest car parks are Exchange Street, Waterside North and the Friars Square multi-storey.

Tariffs and Blue Badge detail are on our Aylesbury parking page, and anything live on the roads in is on the roadworks and travel page.

Sources

All checked on 5 September 2026. The Buckingham listing, the Aylesbury Town Council calendar, the Green Ridge PTA page and the Brill listings were re-checked on 30 September 2026, and again on 6 October 2026.