Hereford's switch-on is not announced for 2026 and the city council's website is down. It has landed on the third Sunday of November four years running.

There is no announced date for the Hereford Christmas Lights Switch-On 2026. As at 5 September, nothing has been published by either of the two organisations that run it.

There is a specific reason for the silence, and it is worth knowing. Hereford City Council’s entire website is down. Every page on herefordcitycouncil.gov.uk returns a server error, including the year-stable Christmas lights page the council normally uses to publish the date and the running order. We checked repeatedly on 5 September, on both the apex and www addresses, and got HTTP 500 from all of them. The council’s own web address is the one place the announcement would normally land first.

Our pencilled-in date is Sunday 15 November 2026, and that is our inference, not a published fact. Here is the reasoning.

The date has been the third Sunday of November four years running

Year Date Day of November Source
2022 Sunday 20 November Third Sunday Visit Herefordshire event listing
2024 Sunday 17 November Third Sunday Sunshine Radio, co-organiser
2025 Sunday 16 November Third Sunday Sunshine Radio, co-organiser

The third Sunday of November 2026 is 15 November. Third-party listings put 2023 on Sunday 19 November, also the third Sunday, though we could not confirm that one against the organisers, so it is left out of the table above.

Three verified years in a row is a real pattern rather than a guess off a single year, but it is still a pattern and not an announcement. Treat 15 November as a date to keep free, not a date to book trains around.

What the event actually is

It is not a five-minute ceremony. Hereford City Council and Sunshine Radio have run it together for well over a decade, fourteen years as of the station’s own count in 2024, and it takes over High Town for most of a Sunday afternoon. The shape has barely changed:

  • Free entry, no ticket, in High Town
  • Show starts mid-afternoon, 3.15pm in both 2024 and 2025, 3.30pm in 2022
  • The big switch-on is at 5pm, done by the Mayor of Hereford
  • A national headline act plus local performers, then an after-party in some years

Past headliners give the flavour: Fast Food Rockers in 2025, Eternal in 2024 and Betty Boo in 2022, with S Club, Liberty X and Lee Ryan named by the station as earlier guests. Local acts recur, with the Hereford Rock Choir, Finn McGowan and the One Vision School of Arts on the bill in 2025 alongside Sunshine Radio’s house band Superficial Damage.

For families, 2025 ran from noon to 6pm with more than 50 festive market stalls, free face painting, Lego play, a grotto with Mr and Mrs Claus, and medieval knights in armour walking around town. The lights came on at 5pm to a Highland bagpiper.

What is still unknown for 2026

Everything except the shape. There is no announced date, no start time, no headline act, no grotto booking arrangement, and no road closure notice. The city council’s website going down means even the standing information is unavailable, so if you need to reach the council about the event, the published contact is info@herefordcitycouncil.gov.uk.

We will update this page as soon as a date is published. In previous years the announcement has come in late October: the 2025 line-up was released on 21 October 2025, roughly four weeks out.

The market towns switch on at six different times

Herefordshire has no county-wide switch-on date, and the towns are spread across a fortnight. These are the 2025 dates, published by Visit Herefordshire in October 2025, and none of them has a 2026 equivalent yet:

  • Bromyard, Saturday 15 November 2025, 12.15pm to 6.30pm, parade and street market, lights at 5pm
  • Hereford, Sunday 16 November 2025, noon to 6pm, lights at 5pm
  • Ledbury, Sunday 23 November 2025, noon to 5.30pm, lantern making and Ledbury Brass Band
  • Hay-on-Wye, Friday 28 November 2025, 5pm to 7pm, Father Christmas arriving by steam engine
  • Leominster, Saturday 29 November 2025, 2pm to 6pm in Corn Square, official switch-on at 6pm
  • Kington, Sunday 30 November 2025, from 6pm
  • Ross-on-Wye, Sunday 30 November 2025, 11am to 5pm, Christmas Fair with over 80 stalls

Leominster Information Centre’s calendar runs to March 2027 and carries no 2026 switch-on entry, so those dates are not out either.

What is confirmed for Christmas in Hereford

One festive fixture does have firm 2026 dates. Hereford’s Christmas markets run on six days in December, all in High Town and Commercial Street, and Herefordshire Council has published them. Our Hereford Christmas market page has the dates and the stall prices.

If you are driving in for the switch-on when it is announced, High Town is pedestrianised and the nearest council car parks are covered on our parking in Hereford page, where a full day runs from £5.50 at Merton Meadow to £17 at the dearest four. Any temporary closures on the day will appear on our Hereford roadworks and travel page.

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