Weston-super-Mare Carnival: 7pm, Friday 13 November

Weston-super-Mare Carnival is on Friday 13 November 2026 and the main procession starts at 7pm. A pre-carnival procession goes along the route first, at 6.20pm. The date and the 7pm start are on the carnival committee’s own site in two places: the countdown on its home page and its list of this year’s circuit dates. (Weston-super-Mare Carnival, carnival dates)

Expect more than 100 entries and up to two hours for the whole procession to pass a given point. (Weston-super-Mare Carnival)

One thing to know before you look elsewhere: North Somerset Council’s own carnival page has not been updated for 2026. As of 5 September it still opens “The next Weston-super-Mare Carnival will take place on Friday 7 November 2025”, and the traffic order it links to is the 2025 one. The council page is useful for how the town is managed on the night, but the date on it is last year’s. (North Somerset Council)

The route

The committee says the route changed in 2025, that the change was well received, and that it stays the same for 2026.

It starts and finishes at the Locking Road car park. It goes through the bus hub, turns left at the cinema, then right into Oxford Street to the seafront. At the seafront it turns left, goes around the small lawn, then right along the A370 past the Pier and the Winter Gardens, right at Wetherspoons into South Parade, then Waterloo Street, the Boulevard, and right into Alfred Street back to Locking Road. (Weston-super-Mare Carnival)

The stretch between Locking Road car park and the pedestrian crossing in the bus hub is a sterile area for parade security. It is not a viewing spot and you will be moved on.

If the tide is high or the weather turns, North Somerset Council may deploy the flood defences, and the procession then takes an alternative route. The committee tells drivers to follow the signage put out on the day.

Parking, and the car parks you will not get out of

Most town centre car parks sit inside the carnival route. The committee is blunt about what that means: you will not be able to enter or leave them from 5pm, when the town centre roads close, until it is safe to reopen the roads after the procession, at roughly 10pm.

• Beach Lawns car park, BS23 1AT, is the extra visitor car park outside the closure area. It opens at 2pm on carnival day, costs £10 per car, and the only way in is from Beach Road. When it is full, it is full.
• The recommended approach avoiding the closures is from the Weston General Hospital roundabout on the A370, north along Bridgwater Road and Uphill Road North, past the entrance to Marine Parade. It is signposted and marshalled.
• Marine Parade and its parking bays are closed to all traffic all day except coaches and minibuses. No cars.
• Disabled parking is inside Beach Lawns car park at the same £10, with officials directing you to the spaces nearest the route.
• Two disabled viewing areas, one near Beach Lawns and one on Waterloo Street near the Italian Gardens, open from 5pm, stewarded, free, limited spaces.

(Weston-super-Mare Carnival)

Car park tariffs for the rest of the year are on our parking in North Somerset page.

Road closures: what 2025 tells you

No traffic order has been published for 2026 yet. The 2025 order is still on the council’s site, and because the route is unchanged it is the best guide available. Read it as a pattern, not as this year’s confirmed times.

In 2025 the order ran from 07:00 on carnival day until 01:00 the next morning, with the road closures themselves in force from 16:30 until 01:00, and the no waiting and loading restriction from 07:00 until 23:00, in each case only when the signs and cones were out. (North Somerset Council traffic order, 2025)

Note the half hour gap between that 16:30 and the 5pm the carnival committee quotes. If you are moving a car, work to the earlier time.

Streets closed in 2025 included Marine Parade, Oxford Street, Beach Road from Oxford Street to the Grand Atlantic Hotel, Locking Road from Ashcombe Road to Alfred Street, Regent Street, Meadow Street, Waterloo Street, South Parade, the Boulevard from Stafford Place, Alfred Street, Carlton Street, Station Road, Victoria Square and Knightstone Road from South Road to Victoria Place.

Two more 2025 details worth planning around, both from the council: Locking Road car park closed from the Wednesday before and reopened after midday on the Saturday, and vehicles had to be off the procession route by 3pm or risk a penalty ticket and removal. The car parks the council listed as unaffected were Carlton Street, Walliscote Place, Walliscote Grove Road East and West, Beach Lawns, Madeira Road, Melrose, Hampton and Grove Park.

Our roadworks and travel page carries whatever else is shut across the district that week.

The money, and the programme

All profits go to local charitable causes. The committee’s collection at the last carnival was £23,964, and it asks that donations go only to official collectors, who wear an official sash and carry a numbered tin or bucket. Official programmes are £2, sold at outlets including the Tesco town centre store. (Weston-super-Mare Carnival)

The rest of the circuit

Weston is one of the Somerset County Guy Fawkes Carnivals, so if you miss it there are seven more within a fortnight. The committee’s published 2026 dates are Bridgwater on Saturday 7 November at 6pm, Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea on Monday 9 November at 7.30pm, Weston on Friday 13 November at 7pm, North Petherton on Saturday 14 November, Midsomer Norton on Monday 16 November, Shepton Mallet on Wednesday 18 November, Wells on Friday 20 November and Glastonbury on Saturday 21 November, the last five all at 7pm. (Weston-super-Mare Carnival)

Worth noting locally: the carnival on the Friday night is followed by Fireworks at Sea on the seafront the very next evening.