A Date for the Diary: Sale Weekend, 5–6 September 2026
This is the one. Mark your calendars.
Our annual Galactic Sale Weekend is back for 2026. The sale goes live at midnight on the Friday night (so the moment it ticks over into Saturday 5th September) and runs through to midnight on the Sunday night. Forty-eight hours, every item on the site discounted.
Two proper preview emails will go out before the weekend itself. The first lands at the end of July with the early picture: confirmed new 2026 ranges, the bargain bags taking shape, and the kits worth pencilling in. The second goes out at the end of August with the final specifics: the limited-stock items worth getting in for first thing, the new arrivals that landed late, and any heads-up on stuff that genuinely might not last the weekend. For now, just get the dates in the diary.
Galactic Sale Weekend 2026
Live from midnight Friday 4th September through to midnight Sunday 6th September.
A Page for the Group Chat: "Why Are There Fireworks Tonight?"
This is the one we've been meaning to write for years.
Earlier in May we published Why are there fireworks tonight? – a month-by-month rundown of the common UK reasons you might be hearing fireworks on any given evening. Sports finals (Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League), religious festivals, weddings, Bonfire Night, gender reveals, summer parties, the lot. Each month gets the events that drive consumer fireworks usage and a one-line explainer of what's likely.
It's not really written for fireworks buyers. It's written for the person who comes home from work on a random Tuesday in July, hears fireworks going off down the road, and thinks, "What on earth is going on tonight?" Family group chats, Reddit, Nextdoor, the office WhatsApp at 9 pm – those are the places this page is for. If you've got a neighbour who's been grumbling, that's the link to send them. It saves them from Googling and usually answers their question.
Wedding Season Is Properly Open
April to October is the bulk of the wedding calendar. We're shipping wedding orders most weeks now, the inbox is full of venue-permission questions, and at least one couple a week is asking us how on earth you choose three fireworks out of a catalogue of nearly a thousand.
If you don't want to put a display together piece by piece, we've curated three ready-made wedding display kits in three different scales. All complete, all free-delivery tagged, all designed to be set up and fired without a degree in pyrotechnics.
The Wedding Party at £240 is the entry-level kit. The centrepiece is the Thunderball compound – 168 shots of mixed colour and noise from a single fuse, roughly two minutes of relentless show.
The Wedding Spectacular at £399.99 is the step up. Three heavyweight pieces, including the Infamous compound (one of the best fireworks money can buy in my opinion – a wide-angle barrage that genuinely fills the sky).
If you want the next level, Wedding Extravaganza at £599.99 is it. Stormbringer from Cube Fireworks (Pro Pyro rated, intense rapid-fire) and Spin To Win from Primed Pyrotechnics (famous for the roaring spinning effect) anchor a professional-quality show. If you want a wedding display that will leave everyone speechless, this is the one.
If you're after something quieter – wedding venues with neighbours, older guests, livestock at or near the venue – give us a ring on 01709 769184. Our low-noise range is substantial, and there are plenty of great cakes well under £100. We'll point you somewhere sensible in five minutes.
If you're in the planning phase, have a read of the Wedding Fireworks page before you commit to a venue.
Bright Star Is Beginning to Land
End of April brought the first proper Bright Star drop of the year, and both new pieces are direct replacements for old Galactic favourites – improved for 2026.
Howling Hell Cat replaces our old favourite Scream. 200 whistling shots in just over a minute, F2-rated with an 8-metre safe distance, £24.99 retail but we're selling them at £13.99. Each shot shrieks on the way up and bursts into white crackling strobes at the top. It does not let up.
Missile Command is the improved-for-2026 replacement for our 100 Shot Screeching Missile. £14.99 RRP but we've got them up at £8.99 for 100 screaming missiles, F2 rated, same 8-metre safe distance, similar shrieking-tail effect. A hundred shots for under a tenner is a bargain, and the 2026 version is a noticeable step up on what it replaced.
And while we're on Bright Star – the original War Hawks are fully back in stock. £24.99 for a five-pack of 72g rockets and, hand on heart, the best rocket pack on the UK market under £20 a rocket. We've sold these for over a decade – they've been our best-selling rocket pack for most of that time, and the most recent update bumped each rocket's powder load from 60g to 72g while keeping the price the same. Single gold-brocade head per rocket, heavy report on the break. If you'd been waiting for them to come back around, they're here – and plenty of stock on the shelves.
From a little earlier in the year, Hot Eight Candle is still selling steadily. Three-pack of large-bore Roman Candles for £24.99, eight shots each, 24 in total across the pack. Golds and silvers on the rise, heavy crackle on the breaks. It's the candle for the customer who wants cake-level effects with the flexibility of Roman Candles.
The New Fireworks page has all recent arrivals in one place, including multipacks if you're stocking up early for autumn.
A Word on Liuyang
Rescue teams at the Huasheng plant, Liuyang, Hunan. Photo source: Xinhua / China Daily, 9 May 2026.If you've been online at all over the last three weeks, you'll have seen the news from Hunan. On the 4th of May, a workshop at the Huasheng plant in Liuyang exploded. Thirty-seven people died, more than fifty were taken to hospital, and Hunan's emergency department ordered all 431 fireworks factories in the province to stop work within hours. Our thoughts have been with the families in Guandu and the rescue teams ever since.
We wrote a proper piece on it on the 14th and sent a dedicated email out to the list around the same time, so this is a brief callback rather than a full re-run. The short version: the picture is steady, not panicked. Most of what we'll be selling for 2026 is already in the UK, on the water, or finished and ready to load. New 2026 ranges that hadn't started production yet are the ones most likely to be affected. There will not be a shortage of fireworks for Bonfire Night.
If you missed the full write-up, the substantive piece is here:
Liuyang fireworks factory explosion, May 2026: what it means for UK fireworks
And on Pets, While We're Here
Quick reminder on this one, because it matters more in May than in October.
If you've got a nervous dog or cat at home, the Fireworks & Pets guide we put out in April is worth a read now, not in October. The two-week desensitisation window means starting preparation early matters more than anything you can do on the night. By the time the first 5th of November rocket goes off, it's already too late to start.
Boris, Wilma and Millie are all still in at Galactic HQ with us most days, so this is a conversation we genuinely care about. The guide covers dogs, cats, small animals, horses, ID-tagging before fireworks season, what to do if your animal goes into distress, and the signs it's time to call a vet. Share it with whoever needs it before the school summer holidays hit and people stop reading their emails.
What's Coming Next
June is when 2026 stock starts properly landing. We're expecting containers from Pyroworx and Primed Pyrotechnics – both brands have had product on the water through May, and we'll be unloading and putting it on the shelves through June and into July. We'll cover whichever ranges land first in the June update with proper video round-ups.
June through September is the perfect time for a few fireworks along with your summer parties and celebrations. If you're planning a summer garden display, our Best Garden Fireworks for Summer 2026 guide covers safe distances, what suits a smaller plot, and why compound cakes are worth the extra space if you've got a bigger garden – most need a minimum of 25 metres from your audience.
Thanks as always for reading, and for the orders that keep us going year-round.
James.
