The Cathedral Green market opens 10am Friday 13 November and closes 5pm Sunday 13 December. Full daily hours, and why other listings show last year's dates.

The Exeter Cathedral Christmas Market has its 2026 dates, and they are earlier than a lot of the listings you will find. The market opens at 10am on Friday 13 November 2026 and closes at 5pm on Sunday 13 December 2026 on Cathedral Green. That is a month of trading and, unusually, it finishes a clear eleven days before Christmas.

The market’s own site publishes the dates and the daily hours in full, so this is settled rather than provisional. (exetercathedralchristmasmarket.co.uk)

Opening times, day by day

Days Open
Monday to Wednesday 10am to 7pm
Thursday to Saturday 10am to 9pm
Sunday 11am to 5pm

The first day, Friday 13 November, starts at 10am. The last day, Sunday 13 December, ends at 5pm. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are the late nights, which is when the Green is busiest and when the lit chalets look their best.

What is confirmed, and what is not

Confirmed by the organisers:

  • Dates and hours, as above.
  • Location: Cathedral Green, in front of Exeter Cathedral.
  • Scale: the market describes itself as “Devon’s biggest Christmas market with over a hundred festive chalets”, with global street food, themed bars and West Country produce.
  • The cathedral itself is running its entry by donation offer alongside the market, so you can go inside without a fixed ticket price.

Not published yet, as at 4 September:

  • The trader list. The site’s Meet the Traders page says “Coming Soon”.
  • The events and performances programme. Also listed as coming soon.
  • The stage line-up and any carol or choir dates.

Trader applications opened back in May, and organisers said the 2025 season drew more than 600,000 visitors with a record number of trader applications, which is why they pushed businesses to apply early. (Exeter Today, 20 May 2026)

Careful with the dates you find elsewhere

Several round-ups still show 20 November to 19 December for the market. Those are last season’s dates. The same listings also date the Topsham Christmas lights to “Friday 28 November”, which was a Friday in 2025 but falls on a Saturday in 2026, so the whole page is carrying over.

If a site gives you dates that do not match 13 November to 13 December, it has not been updated. The cathedral’s own event page and the market’s own site both give the 2026 dates. (exeter-cathedral.org.uk)

Getting there, and the parking reality

Cathedral Green is pedestrian only. There is no parking on it and no drop-off next to the chalets, so every option means a walk of a few minutes.

  • Closest council car park: Guildhall, 397 bays, roughly five minutes on foot. It is in the Central tariff zone, which is Exeter’s dearest at £19.30 all day.
  • The Thursday trick: Guildhall and John Lewis are free after 6pm on Thursdays, all year round. Thursday is also one of the market’s 9pm nights, so a Thursday evening visit is the cheapest way to drive in. Guildhall locks at midnight.
  • Free to park: all three park and ride sites. Sowton and Matford do not run on Sundays, so on market Sundays only Honiton Road is an option.
  • Full tariffs, blue badge rules and the Sunday trap are on our parking in Exeter page.

No road closures have been published for the market build or breakdown. Cathedral Green is closed to traffic anyway, but the streets around it carry the delivery traffic, so check our roadworks and travel page in the days before you go.

What it means for you

  • Put 13 November in the diary, not 20 November. A week’s difference matters if you are booking a train or a table.
  • The market ends on 13 December. If you are used to browsing it in the last week before Christmas, that window has gone this year.
  • Late nights are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, to 9pm.
  • Sunday is the short day, 11am to 5pm, and the only day the two southern park and ride sites are shut.

We will update this page when the trader list and the performance programme are published. More things to do across the city are on our things to do in Exeter page.

Sources

Details change. Check the market’s own site before you travel.