Bonfire Night statistics: Ticket Tailor’s annual fireworks report

Ah, Bonfire Night. Toffee apples, sparklers and a huge crackling fire, all to mark a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament more than 400 years ago. It's a bit bonkers if you think about it, but we Brits are fiercely proud of it!

So we decided to take a look into some of the interesting statistics behind the bonfire nights here on Ticket Tailor. Here are the headlines: The typical ticketed fireworks display in the UK sold 750 tickets in 2025, at an average of £9.92 a ticket. Schools and PTAs ran almost three in ten of the displays, and half of all tickets were bought in the final week before the big night.

Every November we dig into the fireworks displays that sell tickets through Ticket Tailor. This year we went back further than ever: 852 displays across four years, from 2022 to 2025, so let's take a deep dive.

And if you're looking to ticket a firework or bonfire event then we're here to help!

Are Bonfire Night fireworks displays getting more popular?

They're holding strong, and they've come a long way since the pandemic. "In 2020, short of a few drive-in events, Guy Fawkes night was all but cancelled," says George Follett, now Ticket Tailor's Managing Director. One of those events was Maui Waui Events' drive-in fireworks show. Since then, the number of displays selling tickets on Ticket Tailor has climbed every year, from 125 in 2022 to 308 in 2025.

That growth comes with a caveat. Most of the new displays are organisers joining Ticket Tailor for the first time, so it says more about online ticketing than about the nation's appetite for fireworks. To get a fairer read, we compared every returning display with its own figures from the year before. In 2025, those displays sold 3.1% more tickets and took 12.2% more revenue.

So crowds are steady, with a little growth, while prices are doing most of the moving. Organisers keep coming back, too: 84% of those who ran a display in 2024 did it all again in 2025. Anyone who's spent a cold November evening in a hi-vis jacket will know that's no small commitment!

Bonfire Night's wider popularity hasn't faded either. It's the ninth most popular national or religious event in the UK in YouGov's popularity ratings, just below Father's Day and above St Patrick's Day and Halloween.

How much do Bonfire Night fireworks tickets cost?

The average paid ticket for a UK fireworks display cost £9.92 in 2025, up from £8.25 in 2022. That's a 20% rise in three years, with 6% of it in the last year alone.

Billericay Fireworks, captured by William Warby

George saw it coming in 2022: "It's clear cost rises seen across the entire economy are also impacting the costs of running a fireworks display. Most fireworks are imported from China and costs have gone through the roof." That hasn't changed. China still supplies around 98% of UK firework imports by volume, according to IndexBox's 2024 trade data.

Costs are hitting the big free shows hardest. Major public displays in London, including Blackheath and Carshalton, and in Manchester were cancelled over 2024 and 2025, mostly on cost grounds. Community displays seem to be absorbing those costs through ticket prices instead. [EDITOR: link IndexBox and the original press reports rather than the Galactic Fireworks summary]

How many people go to a typical fireworks display?

The typical display sold 750 tickets in 2025 and took around £6,000 in ticket revenue. The average is higher, at 1,353 tickets and £11,300, because a few very large shows pull it up.

The typical display has got a little smaller each year since 2022. That's mainly because the newcomers tend to be smaller, more local events, a school field rather than a county showground. Returning displays are holding their crowds.

Who puts on Bonfire Night fireworks displays?

Mostly schools. Schools and PTAs ran 29% of the displays we tracked in 2025, and they've been the biggest group every year. Rugby clubs (9%), Scout groups (9%) and village or community groups (8%) followed. Cricket clubs, once a Bonfire Night stalwart, slipped behind rugby clubs and Scouts in 2024.

Then there's Round Table/community run firework events. It ran just 5% of displays but sold 17% of all tickets, averaging more than 4,700 tickets a show. A typical school display sold around 800. So if you've been to one of the really big local displays, there's a decent chance a Round Table was behind it.

"The thing we love about Guy Fawkes nights is that they are hyper-local events, put on by local community groups, for the local community," says George. And most of the money they raise goes straight back into those communities, through school funds, club pavilions and Scout huts.

When do people buy Bonfire Night tickets?

At the last minute, mostly! Half of all tickets in 2025 were bought in the final week, and nearly a quarter on the day or the day before. That makes sense, because nobody wants to commit to standing in a field until they've seen the forecast.

The weather can show up in the numbers. In 2023, Storm Babet and then Storm Ciarán swept across the UK in the run-up to 5 November. It was the only year in our data where returning displays sold fewer tickets than the year before, down 3.8%. We can't prove the storms were to blame, but the timing is hard to miss.

Selling early helps take the sting out of that uncertainty. Kyle McGill runs the Billericay Round Table Fireworks Display, the largest fireworks show in Essex, and he's seen it first-hand: "With Ticket Tailor, we knew we had achieved our break-even point before we even started setting up, which takes a huge stress off and makes the event even more enjoyable for all the hardworking volunteers."

Timing seems to matter too. Displays that went on sale in September sold almost twice as many tickets as those that started in October: a median of 956 against 497 in 2025. Part of that is because big, established displays tend to open early anyway. Still, with 62% of displays now on sale by the end of September, an October launch could mean starting behind.

Planning your own fireworks display?

If you're already thinking about this year or next, it may be worth looking at how ticketing for fireworks displays works on Ticket Tailor, and how its pricing compares to other platforms. Our ticketing tips for Bonfire Night events cover the selling side, and there are 22 Bonfire Night ideas if you'd like to add something new to the night.

Frequently asked questions

When is Bonfire Night 2026?

Bonfire Night falls on Thursday 5 November 2026. Many community displays are held on the nearest weekend instead, so expect plenty on Saturday 31 October and Saturday 7 November.

Are fireworks being banned in the UK?

No. The government ran a UK-wide consultation on fireworks and pyrotechnics from 16 July to 7 October 2026, and it states that a ban is not considered proportionate. Any changes are more likely to cover noise, sales or private use than public displays.

About this data: we looked at 852 fireworks displays selling tickets through Ticket Tailor between 2022 and 2025. A display is one event date between 25 October and 15 November, priced in GBP, with "firework", "bonfire" or "Guy Fawkes" in its name and at least 10 tickets issued. Prices are what buyers paid after discounts, excluding booking fees and free tickets. Every year is calculated the same way. Ticket Tailor works with over 80,000 Event Creators in more than 120 countries.