FIREWORKS: Swansea’s Bonfire Night display is leaving St Helen’s for Singleton Park

Swansea’s council-run fireworks display is moving to Singleton Park this year. It ends a run at St Helen’s that the council put at more than 35 years when it last talked the venue up.

The show is on Thursday 5 November. Gates open at 5pm, the pre-show entertainment starts at 5.30pm and the fireworks go up at 7.30pm.

The move comes as St Helen’s reopens on Wednesday after its £7.6m rebuild as the Ospreys’ new home, with a new artificial pitch where the old turf was.

Swansea Council says the park gives the event one of the city’s biggest outdoor spaces, with more room for the food, entertainment and family activities that fill the two hours before the display.

The council says the show regularly draws thousands of residents, families and students.

What it costs

Standard adult admission is £6. A family ticket for four is £13, and Passport to Leisure members pay from £4.

That is a different shape of pricing from last year, when advance tickets started at £4 a head and a family of five paid £14 at St Helen’s. In 2023 a family of five paid £10 and an advance adult ticket was £4.

Tickets are on sale through Visit Swansea Bay.

Lasers, myths and magic

New this year is a laser display alongside the fireworks. The council says the whole evening is built around a myths-and-magic theme, with themed entertainment and activities before the main display.

Last year’s theme was superheroes; the year before, a night at the movies, with Kev Johns as cheerleader-in-chief.

Getting there

The nearest event parking is at the Singleton Lacrosse Field and the Recreation Ground. The council’s advice is the usual one for its big nights: arrive early, plan the journey and expect thousands heading the same way. Full parking and travel details are on the Visit Swansea Bay site.

Council leader Rob Stewart said Singleton Park “provides a fantastic new home for one of Swansea’s most popular annual events” and “will provide a safe space for what promises to be a magical evening”.

“By attending an organised display, families can enjoy Bonfire Night safely, leaving the fireworks to the professionals while spending quality time together,” he said.

The display’s wandering history

The display has moved before. The council took it out to a barge in the bay in 2021, when high tides pushed it back a week to 12 November, and tried the same in 2022, when stormy weather forced a cancellation days before the night; Singleton Park was one of the alternatives the council looked at then. It went back to St Helen’s in 2023 on the grounds that a ground was less likely to be rained off.

The fireworks open a run of council winter events. The Christmas Parade is on Sunday 22 November, and Swansea Winter Wonderland follows in the city centre.