Reading Christmas Lights Switch-On: 14 Nov, Line-Up Out

Reading’s Christmas lights are switched on Saturday 14 November 2026. Music starts outside Marks & Spencer on Broad Street at 12pm, and the countdown is at 5pm, with special guests from Reading FC Women. It is free, there is no ticket and nothing to book.

That date is confirmed. It is published by What’s On Reading, the listings service run by Reading Arts and Venues as part of Reading Borough Council, which now carries the event with a start of Sat 14 Nov, 12:00 and the full afternoon running order.

Updated 26 October: the line-up is out, and the start has moved forward to 12pm (it was listed from 2pm). Pete Doyle and Dionne open, RASPO play at 2pm, Danny Mountin at 4pm, and Reading FC Women’s team join the 5pm countdown.

Updated 3 October: Visit Reading has rewritten its switch-on page for 2026 and confirms the same date and place, and the Broad Street market’s run is now published as 14 November to 3 January. The line-up is still unannounced.

Everything below was first checked on 4 September 2026 and rechecked on 26 October. Where 2026 details have not been announced, this page says so instead of repeating last year’s.

The details that are confirmed

The display itself is the part Reading BID makes most of: over 800,000 LED lights, designed for Reading rather than bought off a catalogue, with centrepieces built around Huntley & Palmers and Henry I. The 2025 installation, described in the BID’s own announcement, also carried Reading Abbey, Banksy’s Create Escape, the Number 17 bus, Arron Lowe’s “A World in One Place” mural, the Central Club mural’s Pharaoh and the Bayeux Tapestry replica at Reading Museum. The lights are funded by town centre businesses through the BID levy, not by the council.

The running order

Reading BID published the afternoon on its What’s On Reading listing and on Visit Reading’s switch-on page. Both give the same times:

Last year’s afternoon ran on the Reading Community Gospel Choir and JULIETTE The Band; this year there is no choir on the bill. The BID has not named which players are coming, only “special guests” from the women’s team.

What has not been announced

A finish time. Neither the listing nor the BID gives one. After the countdown the entertainment “continues” and the market carries the evening from there.

The market opens on the same day

The switch-on is also the official opening of the Broad Street Christmas Market. The BID’s listing has the market opening that day “ready for the Switch On”, so the stalls are trading through the whole afternoon.

The market then runs to Sunday 3 January 2027, open 10am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 6pm on Sundays, according to Visit Reading’s Broad Street market page. It is food-led again: German bratwurst, a Christmas carvery, toasted marshmallows, waffles, doughnuts, crepes, giant cookies, fudge, a cheese stall, roasted chestnuts, and glühwein with a non-alcoholic mulled wine alongside. Full detail on both markets is on our Reading Christmas market page.

Watch out for the one year-old page

Until late September, Reading’s own tourism site was serving last year’s switch-on as though it were this year’s, under a page titled “Reading’s Christmas Light Switch On | 15 November 2025”. That switch-on page has now been rewritten and says “Saturday 14 November”, with the same 2026 running order as What’s On Reading.

The parent Christmas in Reading page has not caught up. On 3 October it was titled for 2026 but its text still said “Christmas kicks off on 15 November”, which was last year’s date. If you see 15 November anywhere, it is out of date. The date for 2026 is Saturday 14 November.

Getting there, and where not to drive

Broad Street is already pedestrianised, so the switch-on needs no road closure and none has been published. The council’s own Town Centre Public Realm Strategy statement of consultation, published in June 2026, records the slate that “commemorates the completion of the pedestrianisation of Broad Street on 17 May 1994”, and notes that the only vehicles using the surface are deliveries, maintenance vehicles and Readibus. Ordinary bus services do not run along it.

We also checked the Public Notice Portal for Reading traffic notices on 4 September. The live ones cover the Reading Festival period and utility works. Nothing relates to November.

The practical points:

• Train. Broad Street is about a seven minute walk from Reading station, down Station Road and along Friar Street.
• Bus. Town centre services run on the streets around Broad Street rather than through it, so you will be walking the last part whichever route you take.
• Car. Saturday is the worst day of the week for town centre parking and this is the busiest Saturday of the autumn. Our Reading parking page has every council tariff, including the two car parks that are cheapest for a short stay.
• Roadworks. Check our Reading roadworks and travel page before you set off, because the IDR and A33 have both had overnight closure programmes this autumn.

If you are bringing small children

The organisers’ own warning is worth repeating, because Broad Street is a narrow corridor with a big crowd funnelled into it: there will be “large crowds and some tightly packed areas”, and they ask you to keep small children close. It runs whatever the weather. There is no wet weather alternative and no cancellation clause published.

This page will be updated if the BID names the players or changes the running order before the day.