Hatfield and Welwyn Fireworks: 3 Displays, None Free

Welwyn Hatfield has no free, council-run fireworks display. The three organised displays inside the borough this autumn are all ticketed, and the cheapest adult ticket is £12. Bonfire Night 2026 falls on Thursday 5 November, and none of the three is on that night.

This page lists only what organisers have published themselves, with the price and the times they have actually put in writing.

The three displays, in date order

Firework Champions, Hatfield Park, Saturday 12 September

This is the big one, and it is a week away. Three firework companies each fire a ten-minute display choreographed to music, the audience votes by text, and a fourth non-competing display closes the night. Firework Champions publishes the running order: gates open 4pm, final entry 7.15pm, the three competing displays start at 8pm, voting at 9pm, the closing display at 9.10pm, the winner announced at 9.20pm and the event finishes at 9.30pm. (Firework Champions, Hatfield House) Hatfield Park lists the same event as 4pm to 10.30pm. (Hatfield Park, Firework Champions)

Tickets on the organiser’s booking page are £30 adult (17+), reduced from £35, and £20 child aged 5 to 16, reduced from £25. Under 5s go free. Two extras are sold separately: a gazebo permit at £42 for a 3m by 3m space in the walk-in arena, and Park & Stay at £50 per car, which buys the car a marked bay with a view of the display and still requires an admission ticket for every person in it. (Firework Champions, Hatfield House tickets)

General and disabled parking are free and included. Tickets are also sold on the gate at full price, cash only, unless the event has sold out. You may bring a picnic and chairs. No barbecues, under any circumstances.

The parking entrance is off the A414 westbound only, postcode AL9 5PG. The walk-in entrance is opposite Hatfield railway station, AL9 5AE, which is the sensible way in from Welwyn Garden City. All parking is on flat grass, and the walk from car to arena is between 50 and 350 metres.

It is the same day as the Rural Show, in the same park

The Hatfield Rural Show runs 10am to 5pm on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September at Hatfield Park, and Firework Champions gates open at 4pm on the Saturday. Hatfield Park lists both. (Hatfield Park, the Hatfield Rural Show) Neither organiser has published anything about the overlap, so treat the hour from 4pm to 5pm as the busiest the A414 approach will be all weekend and arrive early for either.

Note that Hatfield Park has moved the Rural Show’s location on its own listing since we last wrote about it: the page now says the Cricket Pitch rather than George’s Field.

Hertfordshire Firework Show, Brocket Hall, Sunday 1 November

Brocket Hall is at Lemsford, AL8 7XG, on the Welwyn Garden City side of the borough. The 2026 event runs 4pm to 8pm with last entry at 6.45pm, and the display starts at 7pm, choreographed to film soundtracks. Parking is included in admission. Alongside the display there is a princess show and a bubble show, both 5pm to 6.45pm, plus a DJ and band, face painting and food trailers. (Skiddle, Hertfordshire Firework Show 2026 @ Brocket Hall)

The ticket types listed on the booking page as at 5 September are £18 adult, £10 junior, and under 2s free, all sold as earlybird. The listing says the 2024 and 2025 events both sold out.

One warning. Brocket Hall’s own website is not the place to check this. Its fireworks page still carries the 2024 event, dated Sunday 3 November 2024, with member-only prices of £35 and £18. (Brocket Hall, “Remember, remember the 5th of November”) The Skiddle listing is the live one.

Essendon Country Club, Friday 6 November

The cheapest of the three, and the one closest to Bonfire Night itself. Essendon Country Club’s own booking system lists Fireworks Night on 6 November 2026 at early-bird prices of £12 adult, £7 under 18 and free for under 3s, with onsite parking sold separately at £10 as its own ticket. (Essendon Country Club, club events)

Times for 2026 are not published yet. In 2025 the club ran the same event from 5pm until late with the display at about 6.45pm, food, hot drinks, a bar and music all evening. (Essendon Country Club, Fireworks Night 2025) Essendon is in Welwyn Hatfield borough, at AL9 6HN, about four miles east of Hatfield town centre.

Why there is no free display

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council does not run one. Its events calendar, read to its last entry in March 2027, contains no fireworks display of any kind, in Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield or any of the villages, and nothing at all between the Halloween Spooktacular on 30 October and the Christmas Lights Trail starting 15 November. (One Welwyn Hatfield, events)

That is a real difference from other Hertfordshire towns. Watford Borough Council runs a free display at Cassiobury Park. Here, every option costs money.

Getting there and parking

Both the November displays are at private estates with their own parking, so the town car parks are not the issue. The 12 September event is the one to plan, because Hatfield station is the walk-in entrance and the A414 is the only car route in.

If you are driving in from Welwyn Garden City on any of these nights, check our roadworks and travel page first, because the A1(M) through the Hatfield Tunnel has been closing overnight for tunnel works. For town-centre parking on the night of an event, tariffs and free car parks are on our parking in Welwyn Garden City page.

What it means for you

• Book Firework Champions now if you want it. It is on Saturday, gate tickets are cash only, and the £30 and £20 prices are the reduced advance ones.
• Do not judge Brocket Hall by its own website. That page is two years out of date. The 1 November event and its £18 tickets are on the Skiddle listing.
• Essendon is the budget option, but add £10 for parking. A family of two adults and two under-18s comes to £38 plus £10 for the car.
• Nothing is on 5 November. If you want fireworks on Bonfire Night itself you are leaving the borough.

We will update this page as organisers publish 2026 times, and Essendon’s start time is the main one still missing.