Cambridge BID has confirmed the Big Switch On for Market Square from midday on Sunday 15 November, and the station lights at about 4.30pm on 12 November.

Cambridge switches its Christmas lights on twice this year, three days apart, and both dates are already confirmed by the organiser.

Cambridge BID, which runs and funds the city centre lights, has published its Switch On 2026 page with two events on it.

The two dates

Sunday 15 November, Market Square, from midday. This is the Big Switch On, the one most people mean. The BID says presenter Josh Lovatt will be “commanding the stage” from midday, with “a lively line up from local performing musicians, dance groups, choirs and much much more”. Free, no ticket.

Thursday 12 November, Cambridge station, from about 4.30pm. The BID turns on the lights in the CB1 area outside the station first, with Josh Lovatt again, this time with “his decks and party tunes”. Also free.

What is confirmed, and what is not

Confirmed by Cambridge BID: both dates, both locations, the midday start at Market Square, the 4.30pm start at the station, and the presenter.

Not published yet: a finish time for the Market Square event, and the running order. The BID says the schedule of performers will go out through Love Cambridge on Facebook and Instagram rather than on its own site, so that is where the timings will appear.

For a sense of scale, Visit Cambridge’s listing of the 2025 switch-on records that it ran from 12pm to 5pm on Sunday 16 November 2025, opened with Great St Mary’s Choir, and included 4D Dance, Colours of Dance, Razzmatazz, Sing Choirs, On Stage Performing Arts, All Stars Performing Arts, Vocal Remix, Target Dance and Safira Pinder, with street performances from Ruby Flames Entertainment through the day. The Mayor of Cambridge, Cllr Dinah Pounds, did the honours with the cast of the ADC Theatre. A five hour afternoon with the same shape is the reasonable expectation for 2026, but the end time is not confirmed.

Will Market Square be a building site by then?

A fair question this year, and the answer is no.

Planning permission for the Market Square overhaul was approved on 2 September 2026, but the permission carries the standard three years in which to be begun and no start date has been published. A separate application for the temporary market that will trade while the square is dug up was still in validation when the committee papers were written. Cambridge BID’s own page, checked this week, still puts the 15 November event on Market Square.

Getting there

Market Square sits in the pedestrianised core, so nothing parks beside it. Grand Arcade on Corn Exchange Street is the closest multi-storey and the most expensive in the city at £33.50 for a weekday over five hours; Queen Anne Terrace on Gonville Place is £24 and free after 6pm. Park and ride is free for up to 18 hours and you pay only the bus fare. The full comparison is on our parking in Cambridge page, which also covers the three hours free that Blue Badge holders get in all five multi-storeys.

The station switch-on on 12 November needs no planning at all if you are arriving by train. It happens in the CB1 square outside the ticket hall.

No road closures have been advertised for either event, and Market Square is closed to traffic anyway. If anything changes on your route, it will show up on our Cambridge roadworks and travel page.

Sources