Lights switch-on is Sunday 15 November at Festive Fun Day; the Fayre is Saturday 5 December, 9.30am to 4.30pm, with South Street to North Street shut all day.

Two different Bishop’s Stortford Christmas events get muddled together every year, including by the district council. Both now have 2026 dates: the lights switch-on is on Sunday 15 November at Festive Fun Day, and the Christmas Fayre is on Saturday 5 December.

Christmas Fayre: Saturday 5 December, 9.30am to 4.30pm

The town council has the date up. The 2026 Christmas Fayre runs on Saturday 5 December, 9.30am to 4.30pm, across North Street, Market Square, Potter Street and South Street, all of which are pedestrianised (Bishop’s Stortford Town Council).

Over 100 stalls join the regular Thursday and Saturday market traders and the monthly farmers’ and craft market. The council promises music and entertainment through the town centre and says Santa will be “popping by”. The event is supported by London Stansted Airport.

The 2026 programme is not out. The council’s own page says “View the 2026 programme here” and then, in brackets, “coming soon”. That was still the case on 4 September.

The road closure, and the document that is missing

The council states it plainly: the bottom of South Street through to the end of North Street is closed from 6am to 7pm on Saturday 5 December 2026, with strictly no vehicle access in those hours. The traffic order exists to keep pedestrians safe in a street full of stalls. Queries go to Andrew Crosby at Hertfordshire County Council on 0300 123 4047.

The page then says “Full details on the road closure can be found below”. There is nothing below. The only document linked from the body of that page is the site’s own accessibility statement. If you need the order itself, for a delivery or a business on the closed stretch, you will have to ring the county council rather than download it.

Trading at the Fayre

Applications are open, and the prices are published:

  • Standard pitch, 3m x 3m: £65, or £40 for Bishop’s Stortford BID members with proof of membership.
  • Catering pitch, 3m x 3m: £110, or £85 for BID members.

There are separate application forms for standard pitches and catering pitches. The council also warns that unlicensed stalls on the pavement outside shops are not permitted on the day. The events team is on 01279 715000.

Lights switch-on: Sunday 15 November, at Festive Fun Day

The Christmas lights do not come on at the Fayre. They come on at the BID’s Festive Fun Day, three weeks earlier, and the 2026 date is now out: Sunday 15 November. The BID posted it on 22 September (Discover Stortford).

What the BID has confirmed so far:

  • Festive Fun Day “will return to the town centre on Sunday 15th November”, with performances by the Christmas tree, special offers in shops, seasonal treats, face painting and giveaways.
  • “For the first time, a full lights switch on” to mark the new 2026 lighting scheme across the town centre, paid for by Bishop’s Stortford Town Council.
  • No start time, no switch-on time and no parking offer yet. The BID says “watch this space for more details”.

Last year’s pattern is the best guide to the timings. The town council’s 2025 page, still online, gave Sunday 16 November, 12pm to 4pm, with the tree lights going on at 3.45pm, free face painting, free roasted chestnuts outside CEX on South Street and free all-day parking at Northgate End. Treat those as last year’s, not this year’s, until the BID publishes the 2026 detail.

For what it is worth, 2025 was described by the BID as the third year running for the event, so the format is established even if the date is not.

East Herts Council conflates the two. Its events calendar carries a single entry headed “Bishop’s Stortford Town Christmas lights switch on and fayre”, and the text underneath it is purely the Fayre description (East Herts Council). They are separate events, in different months, run by different organisations.

Who is putting the lights up

The town council retendered the job this year, and the contract has already been awarded. Its notice on Find a Tender, published on 20 January 2026, covered festive lighting of North Street, Potter Street, Market Square and South Street on a four-year contract, estimated at £85,000 excluding VAT, with tenders closing at 5pm on 20 March 2026 (Find a Tender, notice 2026/S 000-004686).

The award record for the same procurement names the winner: High Level Electrics Ltd of Pinner, on a contract signed on 23 April 2026 worth £83,000 excluding VAT, £99,600 including it, running from 1 May 2026 to 28 February 2030.

That matters because the council did not ask for a repeat of last year’s lights. Its tender document asks for “an innovative design that may choose to depart significantly from that which has come before”, and sets a budget of £31,000 for the first year and £18,000 for each of the three after it, with electricity included in the figure. Whatever the design, it has to include a Christmas tree feature in Market Square, currently a tree of “around 25ft to 27ft”, lights on the council’s own offices on Windhill, and lights on the balcony of the Saffron Building Society. Installation is each November by a HERS-registered company, and the lights come down in January (tender document, Bishop’s Stortford Town Council).

Roadside tree lights are an option in the tender rather than a certainty: Hertfordshire County Council no longer allows wires strung between trees in a catenary, so any scheme that includes them has to connect them another way.

The council’s own website has not caught up with any of this: its Christmas Lights tender page still advertises the previous round, for 2022/23 to 2025/26.

Parking on Fayre day

Saturday 5 December is a weekday tariff day, not a Sunday one, so the flat Sunday rates do not apply. All figures below are from the council’s individual car park pages, checked on 4 September.

  • Northgate End, CM23 2ES: £4.40 all day, the cheapest in town. 482 bays over four levels, 2.1m height limit, vehicle access 07:00 to 23:00, charges 07:30 to 20:00. It also has 54 electric charging bays.
  • Apton Road, CM23 3SN: £8.10 all day, but the first 30 minutes are free if you take a ticket.
  • Jackson Square, CM23 3XQ: short stay only, maximum five hours, £6.20 for the full five. 708 spaces, but the car park is locked from 1am to 6am.
  • Link Road, CM23 2BA: short stay, no all-day rate, £6.20 for five hours.

Blue badge holders park free for up to three hours in all of them. The switch-on falls on a Sunday, 15 November, when every one of those car parks drops to a flat £2.10 all day, and Northgate End to £1.70.

Full details on all eight council car parks are on our parking in Bishop’s Stortford page, and anything dug up on the approach roads will be on roadworks and travel.

For the other Christmas markets within reach, Hertford Castle and Knebworth on 27 to 29 November among them, see Christmas markets near Bishop’s Stortford.

What is still to come

The Fayre programme, expected from the town council, and the Festive Fun Day times, switch-on time and any free parking offer from the BID. This page will be updated when either lands.