Holiday & SeasonalDec
Kensington Market Winter Solstice Festival
Kensington's answer to the shortest day of the year: a lantern parade, stilt-walking fire performers and a bonfire finale.
When
2026: December 21, 2026
2027: TBD
2025: December 21, 2025
Where
Kensington Market streets, culminating at Bellevue Square Park
Area
Kensington Market
Cost
Free
Format
outdoor
Running Since
1990 (36 years)
Family Friendly
Yes
VT Insider Tip
Buy or make your own lantern beforehand — Red Pepper Spectacle Arts sells hand-painted ones in the lead-up, and carrying one puts you inside the parade rather than just watching it go by.
About
Produced by nonprofit Red Pepper Spectacle Arts since 1990, this free evening festival marks the winter solstice with a lantern-lit procession through Kensington Market featuring puppets, musicians, stilt walkers and fire performers, building to a Fire Finale where a large flammable structure is set ablaze to symbolize the turn from darkness back to light.
What to Expect
A 7 p.m. parade start that winds through Kensington's narrow streets with drummers, costumed performers and fire, funnelling into a park for the Fire Finale.
Pro Tips
Dress for standing outside in late-December cold for at least an hour. Kensington's streets are narrow and get dense fast, so arrive before the 7 p.m. parade start.
Getting There
Take streetcar 510 Spadina or 505 Dundas to Kensington, or the 506 Carlton/College streetcar and walk south.