Walton's Festival of Light is Saturday 28 November 2026, 11am to 7pm, with the lantern parade at 5.30pm. Switch-on time, route and road closures are still due.

Yes, it is on this year. Walton BID has confirmed Walton’s Christmas Festival of Light for Saturday 28 November 2026, from 11am to 7pm, in the town centre on the High Street and The Heart.

The quick answer

  • When: Saturday 28 November 2026, 11am to 7pm
  • Where: Walton town centre, the High Street and The Heart Plaza, Nettlefold Walk, KT12 1GH
  • What: a lantern parade, a Christmas market and live entertainment, run by Walton BID
  • Lantern parade: the market pauses from 5.30pm to 6pm while it passes
  • Still to come: the switch-on time, the parade route, road closures and parking

Saturday 28 November: what is confirmed

Love Walton, the website of the Walton Business Improvement District, lists the festival as “our annual start to Christmas”, back “with full lantern parade, Christmas Market, Live Entertainment and more”. The listing gives the hours as 11am to 7pm and the place as the High Street and The Heart.

The BID’s stall application notice, published on 8 October, adds the one timing detail so far. Stalls must stay open for the full 11am to 7pm, except for “a short lull in the market” between 5.30pm and 6pm for the lantern parade. That puts the parade at about 5.30pm, after dark.

What is not published yet:

  • the time the lights are switched on, and who switches them on
  • the parade’s route and who is marching in it
  • the stage line-up
  • any road closures in the town centre
  • whether the council repeats last year’s free parking

The event page says “Check back for more information!” and was last updated on 15 September. We will add each detail here as Walton BID publishes it.

Make a lantern for the parade

Riverhouse Barn on Manor Road is running lantern making workshops for the festival on Saturday 21 November, a week before. Imogen Andrews leads three sessions, at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm, each lasting about an hour. It costs £5 for the lantern kit, and there are ten places a session, so book ahead.

Trading at the market

Stall applications close at noon on Friday 6 November. Pitches are a 3m by 3m gazebo space. The BID’s application form prices them at £125 plus VAT for catering, £75 plus VAT for non-food businesses, and free for charities and youth enterprise stalls, with half off for Walton BID members. Set-up is from 9.30am and the market packs down from 7pm to 8.30pm.

Will it go ahead in bad weather?

Not always. In 2024 the festival was cancelled two days before. Walton BID’s notice of 21 November 2024 said the forecast for Saturday 23 November, with gusts of 40 to 48mph and heavy rain, was “beyond the limits of Walton Business Improvement District insurances”. The notice said the town centre and Heart Shopping Centre lights would still be switched on, without a countdown, and asked people not to gather in the Plaza.

In 2025 it went ahead on Saturday 29 November in the rain. The BID’s write-up said the weather “did not spoil our day” and thanked Radio Wey, who compered, and the Walton businesses that paid for it.

If the forecast for 28 November is poor, check Love Walton on the Thursday and Friday before.

Parking and getting there

Last year Elmbridge Borough Council gave free parking on the day at Drewitts, Ashley Park and Manor Road car parks, according to its Love Elmbridge at Christmas 2025 guide. That guide was not published until 10 November 2025, and nothing has been announced for 2026. Normal charges and opening hours for every council car park are on our parking in Elmbridge page.

Road closures for the parade had not been published when we checked. Our roadworks and travel page carries the borough’s closures each week, and Christmas train times covers the railway over the holiday.

Do not trust the old running order

The page that comes top of a search for the Walton Festival of Light, on Walton-on-Thames Life, carries a full running order with a lantern parade time and choir schedule and no year on it. It is the 2019 programme. Its date, 23 November, was a 2019 Saturday. Use the times on this page, which come from Walton BID’s own 2026 listings.

The rest of the Christmas season in Elmbridge

  • Cobham Onederland, a week earlier on Saturday 21 November, 2pm to 7pm, with its switch-on at 5pm. Every village switch-on is on our Elmbridge Christmas lights page
  • Christmas in Surrey at Sandown Park, 21 to 24 November, and Hampton Court Palace’s Festive Fayre in December, on our Christmas markets page
  • Father Christmas at Garsons in Esher from 14 November, on our Santa’s grotto page

What it means for you

  • Put Saturday 28 November in the diary. The market opens at 11am; the parade is at about 5.30pm
  • Book a lantern workshop place on 21 November if your children want to carry one; there are only 30 places
  • Expect the detail late. Switch-on time, route and road closures have not been announced yet, and last year’s free parking was only confirmed on 10 November
  • Watch the forecast. High winds cancelled the 2024 festival two days out

Sources

More from Elmbridge News: what’s on in Elmbridge this month, parking in Elmbridge and roadworks and travel.