The festive market runs 4pm to 8pm on Friday 27 November, then four Saturdays with the Charter Market. The Sunday craft and gift market has been scrapped.
Leighton Buzzard’s Christmas market is on the High Street from 4pm to 8pm on Friday 27 November 2026, the same evening the Christmas lights are switched on. After that the festival moves to four Saturdays, which run alongside the town’s ordinary Charter Market.
The trading hours come from Leighton-Linslade Town Council’s own 2026 stallholder terms and conditions, which is the most precise document published so far. (Stallholder terms and conditions 2026, PDF)
The dates
| Date | Market |
|---|---|
| Friday 27 November | Christmas-themed festive market, 4pm to 8pm, plus the lights switch-on at 7pm and fireworks |
| Saturday 28 November | Charter Market, with live entertainment and extra food traders |
| Saturday 5 December | Charter Market, with live entertainment and extra food traders |
| Saturday 12 December | Charter Market, with live entertainment and extra food traders |
| Saturday 19 December | Charter Market, with live entertainment and extra food traders |
The Saturday market is the regular Charter Market, run by the town council’s markets team, not a separate Christmas market with its own stallholder list.
The Sunday market has gone
If you are looking for the Sunday festive craft and gift market, it is not happening. The council’s 2026 terms say it directly: “there will no longer be a festive craft and gift market on Sunday this year”, and trading opportunities are “for the Friday evening Christmas-themed market and lights switch-on event only”.
This follows a bigger change of shape. In 2025 the whole thing was a three-day weekend, Friday 28 to Sunday 30 November, with programmes on all three days. For 2026 it is one Friday evening plus four Saturdays. (Christmas Festival press release, 2025, PDF)
What is not published yet
The council has not released the 2026 trader list, the entertainment line-up or the Saturday programmes. Its event page says only that more details are coming. Nothing had been added by 4 September 2026.
Practical points on the Friday
- Toilets: the Waterborne Walk multi-storey car park and the Swan Hotel on the High Street
- The High Street clears of vehicles at 3.30pm and none returns before 8.30pm, so plan to walk in
- Parking: the West Street multi-storey shuts at 7pm and charges £8.50 to anyone locked in. Hockliffe Street and Duncombe Drive are open 24 hours and stop charging at 6pm. Full tariffs on our parking page
- Any temporary road closure order will show on our roadworks and travel page once the council publishes it
Trading at the market
Registration for the Friday runs through the council’s own forms, and the terms set out what is required:
- £5 million public liability insurance, with proof before the event
- A completed risk assessment
- Pitches are 3m by 3m. A hired pre-erected stall comes with a 3m by 3m gazebo, a light and two 6ft by 2.5ft tables; extra power is not provided
- Petrol and non-silent generators are banned. A trader who turns up with a petrol generator is refused permission to trade, with no refund
- Free trader parking in the gated car park behind the Swan Hotel at the end of Duncombe Drive
- No single-use plastics, polystyrene or non-recyclable serveware, under the council’s environmental ambition for its events
- Payment is due within 14 days of registration and is non-refundable
Priority booking runs for two weeks for traders who have attended before, then it is first come, first served. To trade on a Saturday you deal with the markets team instead, not the events team.
Applications go through the stallholder registration form or the food vendor form.
If the weather turns
The council reserves the right to cancel. If it does so within 24 hours of the start time because of an official Met Office warning, traders get a 50% refund. If it cancels on the day on health and safety grounds, there is no refund.
Have your say