Ignite Fire Festival and Rochdale Christmas Lights Switch-on

Ignite Fire Festival and Christmas Lights Switch-on

About the festival

  • Times and dates: 
  • 5pm–8pm, Friday, 20 November 2026
  • 5pm–8pm, Saturday, 21 November 2026
  • 5pm–8pm, Sunday, 22 November 2026

Ignite Fire Festival sponsored by The Trade Centre UK will be transforming the square and gardens around Rochdale Town Hall, including new pathways and parkland on Broadfield Slopes. with more dazzling displays and activities for all the family.

New additions for 2026

Immersive night-time trail, 'BODY,' takes centre stage. It will bring visitors on a journey through 6 zones of the human body using fire, light, sound and special effects. The multi-sensory experience is the most ambitious fire and light installation yet from multi-award-winning outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank. Using cutting-edge technology, the experience will entertain and educate.

Christmas lights switch-on: 5.30pm, Sunday, 22 November 2026

Father Christmas and his special guests, including the Mayor and Mayoress of Rochdale will officially switch-on the lights at around 5.30pm on Sunday, 22 November 2026 in front of Rochdale Town Hall after the traditional countdown. Further details will be announced in early November.

The Ignite Fire Festival will continue in the gardens opposite Rochdale Town Hall until 8pm.

A flame in front of a cracked black metal sculpture with red glowing lines and sparks flying through the air.

Displays and performances

Each evening 5pm to 8pm, Friday, 20 November 2026 to Sunday, 22 November 2026.

Step into a world of fiery displays, blazing sculptures and glowing installations created by the award-winning outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank.

Highlights include:

  • North-west premiere of night-time trail, 'BODY.’ It will bring visitors on a journey through 6 zones of the human body using fire, light, sound and special effects. You can expect to be mesmerised on a dramatic, spellbinding journey as you walk through the glowing embers of human metabolism - the silent furnace that keeps us alive, continuously generating heat to power all the bodies functions. Using cutting-edge technology, the experience will entertain and educate, providing a deeper understand of what lays beneath.
  • Fire Garden - extra sparkle, illuminating slopes and gardens behind Rochdale Town Hall with intricate hand-crafted fire sculptures and pyrotechnics, transforming it into a place of beauty.
  • Drum Machine - the 20 strong drumming collective will be bringing their dance floor grooves and stomping tunes to the event.
  • Fireflies - as part of the Culture Co-op programme with Rochdale’s Skylight Circus Arts and live fire shows by interactive arts group Travelling Light Circus, alongside residents trained up especially for the festival performing mesmerising fire spinning feats.
  • A magical landscape of sound, light and fire - the square and gardens around Rochdale Town Hall will be transformed.
  • Teenage Market – stalls filled with home-made goods from our fantastic local young people and enjoy performances from our talented young performers.

More information about BODY: Ignite the fire within

Within the dark architecture of the mind is an electric forest of 86 billion trees where a single thought is a like a lightning bolt. A memory, a warm and lasting glow. The brain sparks with neural and synaptic firing. And the Heart, the ignition point of human experience, creator of the pulse, distributor of heat. An emotional furnace where passion, fear and love are generated and experienced.

BODY is an immersive night-time trail experience that takes you through 6 zones of the human body using light, fire, sculpture and sound to create a dynamic, thrilling audience experience. Journey through the glowing embers of human metabolism.

The silent furnace that keeps us alive. Combining glucose and oxygen, continuously generating heat to power all the bodies functions.

#IgniteTheFireWithin

Accessibility

This event will include some flashing lights and fire effects, loud noises, bright lights, smoke, sensory smells, interactive elements and pyrotechnics.

Most of the event is step-free and suitable for prams, pushchairs and wheelchairs.

Food and drink offers

This food and drink information is from the 2025 event. We aim to update this page in October 2026 when we have more details of the 2026 festival.

There are lots of family friendly restaurants and bars a short walk from Rochdale Town Hall Square. 

The Baum - up to 2 half-price kids’ meals with every adult meal purchased.

The Baum is a traditional pub that serves creative British food, real ales, craft beers, ciders, wines and spirits.

The Flying Horse - get a hot drink and a mince pie for £4.

The Flying Horse is a large pub that serves traditional food, daily specials and a large range of real ales. 

Moody Blue - 10 per cent off your food bill.

Moody Blue is a pub suitable for groups and families that serves traditional food and craft ales.

Ignite Fire Festival gallery

Two people facing each other beneath a bright circular LED tunnel, with glowing purple and white lights forming concentric rings and a central red-and-white spotlight behind them.
Immersive night-time trail, 'BODY,' will take centre stage in Rochdale. It will bring visitors on a journey through six zones of the human body using fire, light, sound and special effects. (Photograph courtesy of Naoise Culhane)
Two performers on an outdoor stage celebrate with raised hands as colorful fog and light beams burst overhead; bright blue and green stage lighting illuminates the scene.
Organisers Rochdale Development Agency are promising this year will be the best yet with new dazzling trails and attractions. (Photograph courtesy of Naoise Culhane)
Silhouetted crowd as red stage lighting and swirling confetti-like particles fill the air.
The free night-time event will open over 3 evenings from Friday, 20 to Sunday, 22 November 2026. (Photograph courtesy of Neil McElmon)
A nighttime shot of the lawn in front of a large gothic building. Large flames can be seen shooting from special pyrotechnic devices.
Thousands of people are expected to attend the event and this year’s will be the biggest yet, say organisers Rochdale Development Agency.
Crowd gathered at night around a brightly lit Christmas tree sculpture with glowing orange and red lights, hanging ornaments, and swirling decorative wires in a park.
Ignite Fire Festival is now one of the borough’s most popular free events.
A group of people in matching green-and-white outfits play large silver drums and percussion instruments on an outdoor night stage with blue lighting.
Back for 2026 is ‘Drum Machine’ - the 20 strong drumming collective who will be bringing their dance floor grooves and stomping tunes to Rochdale.
A fiery flame bursts from a burning hoop-shaped structure as red spotlights shine in the background, with sparks and glowing embers flying through the air.
Through the use of cutting-edge technology the experience will both entertain and educate. (Photograph courtesy of Chris Payne)
Flaming sculptures at night
The festival sees the town centre transformed with displays of flaming lotus flowers, strange birds that rotate or burst into life, hissing sculptures and turning cogs.
A town hall square full of flaming sculptures and lights.
More dazzling displays than ever before are promised this year at Ignite Fire Festival.
A large, intricate metal sculpture of a bird.
One of the installations from 2025. New fiery displays, blazing sculptures and an incredible illuminated installation created by multi-award-winning outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank will be open to walk through each evening.
A performer juggling fire.
Performers from Travelling Light Circus will be appearing again at the 2026 festival.
A mechanical installation at Ignite Fire Festival.
Ignite Fire Festival will again be transforming the square and gardens around Rochdale Town Hall.
Wild Wanders.
Fiery displays, blazing sculptures and illuminated installations created by artists and pyro technicians from multi-award-winning outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank will be open to walk through each evening.

Event sponsor

The Trade Centre

This event is sponsored by The Trade Centre UK the region’s largest car supermarket.

 

Event organisers

Rochdale Borough Council and Rochdale Development Agency in partnership with Walk the Plank and Culture Co-op, funded by the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund, supported by the council.

Disclaimer

Events and activities are not organised by Rochdale Borough Council unless stated otherwise. Neither is Rochdale Borough Council responsible for the accuracy of the information provided. If you are under 18, ask your parent/guardian before taking part in any event or activity.

We do not endorse any of the businesses we mention on this page, nor the views they express or the products or services they offer.