Wanstead Festival returns to Christchurch Green on Sunday 13 September 2026, 11am to 6pm, free entry, inside a Fringe that runs until Saturday 26 September.

Wanstead Festival is on Sunday 13 September 2026, 11am to 6pm, on Christchurch Green Recreation Ground, High Street, Wanstead, E11 2RH. Entry is free and it is run by Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure on behalf of Redbridge Council.

It sits in the middle of the Wanstead Fringe, a separate, volunteer-run programme that runs from Saturday 5 to Saturday 26 September, so the festival is the busiest day of a three-week season rather than a one-off.

What is on at the festival

Redbridge Council’s event listing names the attractions:

  • arts and crafts
  • children’s rides, which carry a charge
  • street food
  • a holistic wellbeing zone
  • a land train
  • a pop-up pub
  • strolling performers
  • the Walkies with Una dog competition

The council describes it as suitable for all ages. The organiser’s contact address is redbridge-events@visionrcl.org.uk, and the Eventbrite listing gives a phone number of 020 8708 2016.

Tickets are free. The Eventbrite page exists mainly for stallholders and exhibitors: it notes that refunds are available up to 14 days before the event and not inside 14 days, that registration changes need seven days’ notice, and that stall space is ground only, so exhibitors bring their own equipment.

What is not confirmed

There is no published stage line-up. The council listing names the zones and the dog competition, not the acts.

No road closure has been published. Christchurch Green is a green rather than a street, and neither the council listing nor the Eventbrite page mentions a closure on the High Street. If one is made, it will show on our Ilford roadworks and travel page.

The Fringe around it

The Wanstead Fringe describes over a hundred events across September, in venues including the Wanstead Curtain, The Bull, The Duke, Wanstead Golf Club, Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club and Wanstead Pottery. Booking is on the Fringe’s own site, event by event.

The dates that anchor the programme, as published by Wansteadium in its Fringe key dates:

  • Friday 4 September: Eve-of-Fringe Charivari
  • Saturday 5 September: Duke street party
  • Saturday 12 September: open air Kinema
  • Sunday 13 September: Wanstead Festival
  • Saturday 19 September: Family Book Day
  • Saturday 26 September: Jumble Trail, then the finale party

Several Fringe shows sell out, and the Fringe site marks its remaining tickets rather than hiding sold-out shows, so it is worth checking the programme page directly rather than a listings aggregator.

Getting there

Wanstead station is on the Central line and is a short walk from the High Street and the green. Snaresbrook station is a similar distance from the other end.

If you drive, the council’s town centre car parks and their tariffs are on our Ilford parking page. Note that Redbridge’s on-street bays give a free first hour only if you start a RingGo session, so parking without one gets a penalty charge notice even inside the free hour.

One source to avoid

Vision RCL’s own site, visionrcl.org.uk, carries the festival’s page but returns an HTTP 202 challenge to ordinary requests and reads as an empty page in most tools. The council’s Discover Redbridge listing and the Eventbrite page carry the same detail and are readable, which is why both are linked above.

Sources