Last Updated on 26 October 2025 by Colette
Kicking off the October half term with a bang (yes the pun was absolutely intentional), Autumn Lights brought the perfect mix of fireworks and festival vibes to the Royal Cheshire Showground on Saturday 25th October 2025 for an afternoon packed with spectacular firework displays, live music, a family funfair and street food.
What to expect at Autumn Lights
- Two fireworks shows (a children’s display + a main display) choreographed to music (I know fireworks are seen to be problematic for lots of reasons but I flipping love them)
- Live music from DJ Ryan Swain, Young Elton – The Tribute Show and Dick and Dom (who we’ve seen quite a few times now at festivals and are always loads of fun!)
- Light performers and walkabout entertainers including Spark! Drummers (we saw them at Illuminate Oldham and loved them!)
- Street food
- Bars
- Funfair rides
- Giant screens
For someone who doesn’t really celebrate Halloween but loves bonfire night and festivals, this sort of event is right up my street and we were excited to be heading to the Autumn Lights Cheshire at the start of October half term!
Autumn Lights Cheshire was the first night of this year’s Autumn Lights tour and the first ever Autumn Lights event in Cheshire – I would imagine most of our thoughts and tips about the event will apply to the rest of the tour so whether you’re considering booking tickets for Autumn Lights Cheshire 2026 or already have tickets booked for this year’s Autumn Lights event, hopefully this will be useful!
What you need to know about Autumn Lights:
- Parking on site is free and well organised – we had absolutely no problems getting on and off site.
- We arrived at Autumn Lights at about 5pm – and whilst there was stuff to do and things to watch, it’s quite a long evening when it’s cold – this isn’t like a summer festival where you’d just enjoy sitting in the sun with a pint. As such we did appreciate that the entertainment from La Flamo, Spark! Drummers, Young Elton Tribute and, Dick & Dom was fairly sustained with only very short breaks in between. (Dick & Dom were the highlight for us as we had expected they would be – we’ve seen them a few times at family friendly festivals before and they always make us laugh). If we were going again, we’d probably aim to be there for about 6pm.
- It’s a long time to be outside and mostly standing still so when I say wrap up warm, I really mean wrap up warm. We were outside for about 4 hours and I was the only one who actually listened to my suggestion to wear a hat – layers are key for this one. Thick socks and boots would be a good idea too as the ground could get very muddy underfoot.
- You are welcome to take your own food and soft drinks onsite – if I’d clocked this earlier, I might have packed a hot picnic and flasks of hot drinks which would have saved us a fortune (we spent about £65 on food and hot drinks and if I’m honest it was mediocre at best). I did however chuck some sweets and cans of pop in my rucksack as we were heading out the door which I was glad of!
- I can’t find any information about chairs on the website but we did notice that a few people had taken camping chair and blankets into the arena with them.
- The toilets were all clean and there were never any queues.
- There are stalls selling light up wands etc but it’s obviously cheaper if you plan ahead and take your own. I bought the girls some foam wands this year which were great fun.
- The fairground is something of an assault on the senses as soon as you get into the event with a lot of very big rides competing for your attention and your money. We tend to avoid rides on the whole as they are just so esxpensie so did a quick walk around before heading down to the main stage. If rides are your thing then there’s plenty to choose from and they would certainly keep your occupied if you arrived on site early.
- The fireworks are split into two shows – one for the children and then a main event. Both are set to music and honestly Dave and I both said the children’s show was probably the most impressive fireworks display we’d ever seen . . . and then they levelled it up again for the main event!
- This spectacular fireworks, music and funfair event is touring the UK in October and November 2025 kicking off in Cheshire before moving on to York, Lincoln, Norfolk, Harrogate and Sheffield: Book tickets for Autumn Lights
Images used in this post are a mix of press images provided by Autumn Lights from previous event and my own.
Have a read of these posts next:
Bonfire night and fireworks events in and around Manchester
What to wear for Bonfire night
How to enjoy bonfire night safely with kids
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