One Maidstone has confirmed Thursday 19 November in Jubilee Square, with a KM-hosted stage, the Mayor and Santa. Times are not out yet; 2025 ran 4.30pm to 7pm.

Maidstone’s Christmas lights will be switched on on Thursday 19 November 2026 in Jubilee Square. The organiser, One Maidstone, has now listed the date on its 2026 event page, and it is the third Thursday in November, the same slot as the last two years.

Updated 1 October: One Maidstone has confirmed the 2026 date, 19 November. Start and finish times are not published yet.

What is confirmed

One Maidstone’s listing gives the date, Thursday 19 November, and the venue, Jubilee Square, ME14 1SA, the open space beside the Town Hall on the High Street. In its own words it will be “hosting our annual light switch on event in Jubilee square, including a stage hosted by the KM with various acts, attendance from the Mayor and a fabulous visit from Santa himself”.

The business improvement district says on its own events page that it “creates, funds and delivers a range of Town Centre events, including the annual Christmas Lights Switch On”. The lights and the switch-on are paid for by town centre businesses through the BID levy, not by the council. It has been free to attend every year with no ticket, and nothing on this year’s listing suggests otherwise.

What is not confirmed yet

The times. The 2026 listing carries no start time, no switch-on time and no finish time, and it does not name the acts on stage. We will add them as soon as One Maidstone publishes them.

Until then, last year is the best guide. One Maidstone’s 2025 page, which is still live, gave the running order for Thursday 20 November 2025: town centre entertainment from 4.30pm with mascots and photo opportunities, a stage show of live music and performances from 5pm, building to the switch-on, and the event finishing at 7pm.

Year Date Times
2024 Thursday 21 November From 5pm, lights on at 7pm
2025 Thursday 20 November From 4.30pm, stage show from 5pm, finish 7pm
2026 Thursday 19 November Not yet published

Who will be on stage

One Maidstone names KM as the stage host, which follows the pattern of kmfm co-hosting in past years. The Mayor of Maidstone has pushed the button before, and the listing says the Mayor will attend this year.

The cast of the Hazlitt Theatre pantomime has appeared in previous years: the Dick Whittington company in 2025 and the Cinderella company in 2024. This year’s panto is Beauty and the Beast, which opens on 28 November, nine days after the switch-on. Whether its cast appears has not been announced.

Parking and getting in

Jubilee Square sits on the High Street, so the town centre car parks are the obvious option. Our Maidstone parking page sets out which streets are free in the evening and which car parks stay open late, and the roadworks and travel page carries the current week’s closures if you are driving in from the villages.

No road closure has been published for the event. The square and the surrounding High Street are already pedestrianised, so in past years no special traffic order has been needed.

Also on in the town centre

Before the lights, One Maidstone’s Maidstone Monster Mash runs through the October half term, from 25 to 31 October 2026, with “giant monster installations, a spooky town centre trail and lots of fun activities”, according to its listing.

Jubilee Square runs a general market every Friday and Saturday under Pitch Markets and Events, so the square is in use most weekends through December. We have not been able to verify a 2026 Christmas market date from a first-party source: Visit Maidstone’s listing for one now returns a 404, and we are not going to repeat a date we cannot stand up.

Sources

Checked on 1 October 2026. Times will be added when One Maidstone publishes them.