Tens of thousands of people celebrated Diwali in Leicester on Sunday, filling Belgrave Road's Golden Mile and Cossington Street Recreation Ground. For the second year running, the festival took place without its traditional fireworks finale. The event is often described as one of the largest Diwali celebrations outside India.

Leicester City Council announced in May that its 2026 Diwali Day would have no public fireworks display, citing safety concerns. The decision followed a scaled-back event in 2025. Instead, Cossington Street Recreation Ground hosted a family day with a live stage, a Diwali Village and a funfair.

Under the council's published guide, Belgrave Road and its side-road junctions closed to traffic from 5pm until about 9.30pm. The closure allowed families to walk the length of the Golden Mile beneath its festive illuminations. The council said those lights had been switched on without a formal ceremony around two weeks before Diwali.

The pared-back format reflected the council's efforts to manage crowd numbers in the narrow streets of the Belgrave area. Traders along the Golden Mile reported busy trade in sweets, saris and jewellery throughout the festive weekend. The night of Diwali itself falls on 8 November this year.

The celebrations coincided with Diwali festivities across India and the diaspora, from Delhi to Toronto. Leicester has one of the largest British Indian communities in the UK. Its Diwali events have been a fixture of the city's calendar since the 1980s.