Kent Life, Leeds Castle and Cornwallis Academy all fire on the weekend of 7 November, not on Bonfire Night. Dates, times and ticket prices for all three.

Three fireworks displays run inside Maidstone borough this autumn, and none of them is on Bonfire Night itself. Guy Fawkes Night falls on Thursday 5 November 2026, and every display on sale in the borough is on the weekend that follows: Kent Life on the Friday and Saturday, Cornwallis Academy on the Saturday, and Leeds Castle on the Saturday and Sunday.

That matters because the Saturday, 7 November, is triple-booked. All three venues fire on the same night, at three different times, in three different parts of the borough. Below is what each one has actually published, checked against the organiser’s own pages and ticket systems on 5 September.

The three displays at a glance

Display Dates Fireworks Adult Child
Kent Life, Sandling Fri 6 and Sat 7 Nov 8.30pm Fri, 6.30pm Sat £18 £15 (2 to 15)
Cornwallis Academy, Linton Sat 7 Nov 6.00pm £11 £7 concession
Leeds Castle Sat 7 and Sun 8 Nov 5.30pm £29 £20 (3 to 15)

Kent Life, Sandling: the cheapest way to get two goes at it

Kent Life at Lock Lane, Sandling, ME14 3AU is the only one of the three running on two consecutive nights with different timings, which makes it the flexible option if the Saturday does not suit.

The farm park’s own event page gives the schedule as gates 4pm, last admission 7.30pm and fireworks at 8.30pm on the Friday, and gates 3pm, last admission 5.30pm and fireworks at 6.30pm on the Saturday. The Friday display is the latest of any display in the borough this year, which is worth knowing if you are bringing small children.

Tickets are £18 adult, £15 child aged 2 to 15, £60 for a family of two adults and two children, with under-twos free. Glow sticks are sold separately from £6. Kent Life members get 15% off by entering the membership card number in the promotional box when booking online, and the discount is like-for-like, so one adult membership buys one discounted adult ticket. Cards are checked on the gate.

Two practical warnings come from Kent Life itself rather than from us. The first is parking: the site says plainly that it “cannot guarantee onsite car parking for all ticket holders” and advises arriving early, with overflow parking at Cobtree Park and a 15-minute walk from there. The second is getting out again, where a traffic management company has been appointed and there “may be a compulsory diversion in place”. Pets are not allowed, and the children’s fairground rides are cash only even though the bar and food stalls are not.

One more thing that trips people up every year: Kent Life is closed for normal daytime visiting on both 6 and 7 November. If you were planning a farm-park day and fireworks in the evening, that is not on offer.

Cornwallis Academy, Linton: £11 in, and the gate shuts at 5.50pm

The Cornwallis Fireworks Spectacular at Cornwallis Academy, Hubbards Lane, Linton, ME17 4HX is by a distance the cheapest of the three, and the one most easily missed. Maidstone’s own tourism site, Visit Maidstone, lists Kent Life and Leeds Castle on its fireworks page and does not carry Cornwallis at all.

It runs on Saturday 7 November, with gates from 2pm and the display at 6pm, according to the organiser’s ticket page. The detail that catches people out is the cut-off: gates close at 5.50pm and there is no admittance after that. Bars and music finish at 7.15pm and the site closes at 8pm.

Live prices on the event’s official ticket agent, Ticket Tailor, are £11 adult, £7 concession and free for under-fours, with car parking a £5 add-on and an all-rides wristband £15. A concession here means anyone under 18 or aged 65 and over, and an adult means 18 to 64 inclusive. Early-bird pricing closed at 11.59pm on 31 August, so these are the general prices, which the organiser says run until 1 November before a last-minute band opens on 2 November.

Parking is the thing to sort in advance. The organiser states that parking tickets are “ONLY available for purchase in advance due to subject to availability” and only through Ticket Tailor as an add-on to an entry ticket. Disabled bays sit just outside the school building on a first come, first served basis, and registered disabled ticket holders can apply for a free Essential Companion ticket after buying a general admission ticket.

Everything sold on site is card only, with the organiser saying “no cash will be accepted” at food, drink and merchandise outlets, which is the exact opposite of Kent Life’s cash-only rides. The display itself is designed and fired by Wizzard Fireworks, and the event is run by FST Group Kent Ltd, a company limited by guarantee registered at the school’s address.

Leeds Castle: the big one, and the earliest start

Leeds Castle at Broomfield, ME17 1PL calls its Fireworks Spectacular “the largest and most spectacular fireworks display in South East England”, and runs it on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November 2026. This year’s soundtrack theme is songs about time, fired to music with projections and lasers on the castle itself.

The castle’s own booking page sets out the shape of the day: arrive at 2pm to use the grounds, maze, play areas and adventure golf, a falconry display at 3pm, and the fireworks at 5.30pm. That is the earliest display of the three and the only one that gets small children home at a sensible hour.

Prices are £29 for adults aged 16 and over and £20 for children aged 3 to 15, with under-threes free but still needing a ticket. There is a separate, much dearer VIP package that includes a behind-the-scenes tour of the firing site and afternoon tea in the Salon, with the caveat that all guests must vacate the castle from 4.30pm until the show is over.

What is not happening

There is no fireworks display in Mote Park this year. Maidstone Borough Council publishes a list of every large event booked into the park, and its 2026 list runs to ten events, ending with the Kent Downs 50 Challenge on 10 October and the Maidstone Half Marathon on 18 October. Nothing in November appears on it.

Maidstone Grammar School’s Annual Fireworks Spectacular is not on sale either. The most recent event on the parents’ association box office is dated 9 November 2024 and is marked unavailable. If a 2026 date appears we will add it here.

Getting there and parking

Kent Life and Leeds Castle both sit off the M20, at junction 6 and junction 8 respectively, and both will be busy on the same Saturday evening. Cornwallis Academy is south of the town on Hubbards Lane, reached through Loose and Linton on the B2163 and A229, with no rail option.

If you are parking in the town centre instead and travelling out, our Maidstone parking page has the current tariffs and the free periods, and the roadworks and travel page carries the current week’s motorway and A-road closures. Neither Kent County Council nor National Highways has published any road closure specific to these three displays, and none of the three organisers has published one either.

Sources

All details checked on 5 September 2026. Times and prices can change, so confirm with the organiser before you travel.