Crowborough Carnival 2026 raised £3,400 for four local charities and the 79th is Saturday 11 September 2027. The full 2026 route, timings and what changed.

Update, Sunday 21 September 2026. The carnival has been and gone, and the society has published the total. Crowborough’s 78th carnival raised £3,400 for its four chosen local charities, announced on 20 September, and the JustGiving page is still open if you missed the buckets. The society has also fixed next year’s date: the 79th Crowborough Bonfire and Carnival is Saturday 11 September 2027. The day ran as published below, with the fete from 1.30pm, the wreath laid at 7pm, the procession away at 7.30pm and back on Chapel Green at 10pm, and no Chapel Green bonfire.

Crowborough’s 78th carnival was held on Saturday 12 September 2026. The afternoon fete opened at 1.30pm on Chapel Green, and the day ended with the torchlit procession through the town. Everything below is the running order as it was walked, which is also the shape the 79th will take on Saturday 11 September 2027.

That date is confirmed twice over: on the Crowborough Bonfire & Carnival Society’s own Carnival 2026 page, which heads it “Saturday 12th September, Chapel Green”, and in East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service’s season list of every Sussex bonfire society date, published on 3 September 2026.

The afternoon: what is confirmed

The society has published these four times for Chapel Green:

Time What happens
1.30pm Carnival Day Fete opens
2.30pm Fancy dress competition judging starts
3.00pm Make a Guy judging, straight after the fancy dress
4.15pm Make a Guy winner announced

The fete runs right through the afternoon with entertainment, refreshments, stalls, displays and a raffle. The fancy dress is open to 0 to 16 year olds, with classes listed in the programme. For Make a Guy, you bring your guy to Chapel Green at any point during the fete with your contact details attached; there is a cup for the winner and cash prizes to third place.

No bonfire this year

The Crowborough Bonfire & Carnival Society has dropped the bonfire on Chapel Green. Its Carnival 2026 page says the committee “took the decision in August not to have a Chapel Green bonfire this year, due to the fire risk conditions in England at that time”.

Everything else went ahead, including the torchlight procession and the fire banners lit on Crowborough Hill near the end of the night. The prize and trophy presentation, which normally follows the bonfire, still happened on the society’s return to Chapel Green at about 10pm. The society has not said whether the bonfire returns in 2027.

The evening: the full route as walked

The society published the procession route and the evening timings shortly before the day. The procession runs clockwise from Chapel Green and comes back to it, and this is the route to expect again in 2027.

Time Where
6.15pm Home made adult fancy dress judging, Mum Cott Memorial Cup, members only
7pm Wreath laying and a minute’s silence at the war memorial, Chapel Green
7.30pm Grand Torchlight Procession moves off from Chapel Green
about 8pm Fermor Road, having come via Queens Road, Blackness Road, Herne Road and Fermor Way
about 8.30pm Twenty minute stop at the Bricklayers Arms, reached via Whitehill Road
about 9.10pm Twenty minute stop at the Social Club on Croft Road, all societies welcome inside, food and drink outside
about 9.40pm Fire banners lit on Crowborough Hill, via The Broadway
10pm Back at Chapel Green, then prizes and trophies

In plain terms, the outward leg is Queens Road, Blackness Road, Herne Road and Fermor Way to Fermor Road, and the return is Whitehill Road, Croft Road, The Broadway and Crowborough Hill. Visiting societies from across Sussex walk it too, each behind its own banner.

No road closure order has been made for Crowborough Carnival 2026. We checked this again on carnival day itself, and this time against the primary record rather than the society’s page: every East Sussex temporary traffic order published in the Kent & Sussex Courier and carried on the Public Notice Portal. East Sussex County Council has made orders for the London to Brighton cycle ride and for utility works all over the county this month, but there is no Section 14 order, no special event order and no proposed order covering Queens Road, Blackness Road, Herne Road, Fermor Way, Whitehill Road, Croft Road, The Broadway or Crowborough Hill on 12 September.

In practice that means the procession is stewarded rather than formally closed off. If you need to drive across town between 7.30pm and 10pm, assume each street on the route above is blocked as the procession passes it, and allow for the two twenty minute stops, at the Bricklayers Arms from about 8.30pm and the Social Club from about 9.10pm, when it stands still.

Two closures on the same roads followed the carnival week, and those were real orders in the making. East Sussex gave notice that it intended to close Church Road, from the Croft Road junction to Beacon Road, on Tuesday 15 September for Southern Water, with the signed diversion via Croft Road, South View Road and Beacon Road; and Burdett Road in Jarvis Brook, from Crowborough Hill to Forest Rise, on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 September, also for Southern Water. Both were worded as an intention to make an order rather than an order already made. For what is live now, see Crowborough roadworks and travel.

The society’s torch crew spent successive evenings in July making nearly 5,000 torches for the night.

What the 2026 carnival raised, and when the 2027 one is

The society published its street-collection total on 20 September 2026: this year’s carnival raised £3,400 for the four chosen local charities, The Good Company People, Smiles Sensory & Family Farm, Artytime and Crowborough First Responders. Every penny of the bucket money goes to them and the society keeps none of it. The JustGiving page stays open after the night, so a late donation still counts towards the same four.

That is down on the £4,065 the 2025 carnival raised, a figure the society published on 11 October 2025. The obvious difference between the two years is the bonfire: the committee dropped the Chapel Green bonfire in August 2026 over fire risk conditions, and the bonfire is the part of the night that normally holds a crowd on the Green with buckets going round after the procession returns.

The date for next year is already set. In its thank-you post of 13 September 2026 the society wrote that it looks forward to seeing everyone again “for the 79th Crowborough Bonfire and Carnival on Saturday 11th September 2027”. That follows the pattern: the second Saturday in September, Chapel Green, fete in the afternoon and the torchlight procession in the evening. Nothing has been said yet about whether the bonfire returns, which will depend on the conditions next summer rather than on any decision taken now.

The society also thanked its road closure marshals, the visiting societies, the bands, the torch-runners, the fire marshals and St John Ambulance, and asked people to look at the work of Luke Hawkes, the local photographer who shot the night.

The programme, and where to buy it

The 2026 programme sold at £1, and the society said it set out “the whole of Carnival Day set out for you, so you know what is happening and when”. Stockists listed by the society:

  • Blu Barbers
  • Brew Box, London Road
  • Brew Box, Goldsmiths Park
  • Carson’s Tea House
  • Crowborough Shoe Repairs
  • Crowborough Social Club
  • Fieldbuss Newsagents
  • Guest Shoe Services
  • Images
  • Value Essentials
  • White Hart, on the Green
  • Zest

Where the bucket money goes

Every penny collected in the buckets during the afternoon and the evening goes to the year’s chosen good causes, and the society keeps none of it. The four for 2026, announced on 30 August, are The Good Company People, Smiles Sensory & Family Farm, Artytime and Crowborough First Responders. There is also a JustGiving page if you do not carry cash.

For scale: the 2025 carnival raised £4,065 for that year’s charities, a figure the society published on 11 October 2025.

Getting there and parking

Chapel Green is in the middle of town, next to All Saints Church. Our parking in Crowborough page has the town’s car parks and the rules that apply to them. If you are driving in from Uckfield or Buxted, check Crowborough roadworks and travel first: Framfield Road at Buxted and several A22 schemes are live this month, separately from anything the carnival itself closes.

Not the only one this month

Crowborough opens the local run of the Sussex bonfire season rather than closing it. Fletching was the next night, and the society itself said that after Crowborough “attention will turn to Mayfield on the 19th of September”. Buxted followed the Saturday after that, and the Sussex season runs on into November. The full local calendar, with which dates are confirmed by the societies themselves and which are not, is on our Crowborough fireworks and bonfire night page.

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