Bonfire Night in North Shields 2026

Ask around town and you will usually be told that North Shields does not have a fireworks display of its own, and that you have to go up the coast or over to Newcastle for one. That is not quite true. The biggest organised display anywhere near here is held at Tynemouth Cricket Club, and the name is the only thing about it that belongs to Tynemouth. The ground is on Preston Avenue, the postcode is NE30 2BG, and that is North Shields. It is our display. We just do not call it that.

First, the dates

Bonfire Night 2026 falls on Thursday 5 November, but almost nothing in the region actually goes up on the night itself. Organisers move to the nearest weekend, which in 2026 means Sunday 1 November or Saturday 7 November. Check the date of whatever you are planning before you make arrangements, because a lot of listings sites still write as though 5 November is a given.

Tynemouth Cricket Club, Saturday 7 November

The cricket club's fireworks display is on Saturday 7 November. Gates open at 5pm and the fireworks start from 7pm, so there is a good stretch of the evening to fill beforehand, and the club puts on food, runs a bar and keeps the clubhouse open through the night. That matters in early November. Being able to get indoors and get something hot is the difference between a nice evening and a cold one, particularly with younger children.

Tickets go on sale in advance through TicketSource, with early-bird pricing released in the autumn and a discounted group ticket if you are going as a family or with friends. It is worth booking rather than assuming, because this is a popular night and the early-bird rate does not last.

Best for: The single most useful thing to know: the club's TicketSource link changes every single year, and the 2025 listing is still live under a different code. Go to the club's own website and follow the link from there, then check the event page says 2026 before you pay.

Getting there

The ground sits between the two towns, roughly halfway, and it is walkable from both North Shields and Tynemouth Metro stations. On a night when a few thousand people are converging on one set of gates, that is a genuine advantage: the Metro is almost always the easier call than trying to park on the residential streets around Preston Avenue.

If you want to make an afternoon of it first, Scott & Wilson on Trevor Terrace is only a few minutes away and does a proper breakfast and brunch menu, which sets you up nicely for standing in a field. Afterwards, the town centre is a short walk or one Metro stop back, and The Seven Stars on Albion Road is a straightforward traditional pub if you fancy warming up over a pint.

The free option: The Links, Whitley Bay

If you would rather not pay, North Tyneside Council's borough fireworks display is on Sunday 1 November on The Links at Whitley Bay, NE26 1TQ. The site opens at 6pm, the display goes up at 7pm and runs for about fifteen minutes, and it is over by half past.

It is completely free and there is no ticketing at all, which makes it the easiest Bonfire Night outing going. Take the Metro: it is a short ride up the coast from North Shields and the seafront car parks fill long before the display starts. One warning worth repeating, because it catches people out every year. Several aggregator sites have published ticket prices for this display. They are wrong. The prices belong to other events entirely, and the borough display has run free for years.

If it has to be the fifth

Only a handful of displays in the whole region actually run on Bonfire Night itself. The nearest is Blue Flames Sporting Club at Whitley Park in Benton, on Thursday 5 November, with gates at 5.30pm and the display at 7.30pm. It is around five minutes' walk from Benton Metro, which is on the same yellow line as North Shields. Tickets are sold online only and there are no sales on the gate, so this is not one you can decide to do on the day.

For everything else happening across Tyneside, Northumberland and County Durham that week, see our regional round-up of Bonfire Night in the North East.

A few practical things

Organised displays almost universally ban sparklers and personal fireworks brought from home, so leave them behind rather than having them taken off you at the gate. Dogs are better left at home too, even calm ones. And if you have small children or anyone in the family who finds loud, unpredictable noise difficult, the earlier displays are the kinder choice, because a 6pm or 7pm start means you are home before the worst of the neighbourhood back-garden fireworks begin.

Wrap up more than you think you need to. Preston Avenue is exposed, it is November, and the gap between a 5pm gate and a 7pm first rocket is a long time to stand still.

Know of a North Shields bonfire or fireworks event we have missed? Get in touch via our contact page.