Rochester Christmas Market: 9 Days, 27 Nov to 13 Dec

The Rochester Christmas Market runs on nine days between Friday 27 November and Sunday 13 December 2026, in Rochester Castle Gardens, and entry is free. Medway Council has published the full 2026 timetable on both its own Christmas in Rochester page and the Visit Medway listing, and the two agree on every date and time.

It is not a continuous run. The market opens on three consecutive Friday to Sunday weekends and is shut on every weekday in between.

Checked on 4 September 2026 against the council’s own published material.

The nine days, and the times

The middle weekend, 5 and 6 December, is also the Rochester Dickensian Christmas Festival, which the council says draws about 70,000 people to the town over two days on top of everyone already coming for the market. If you want the market without the crush, that is the weekend to avoid.

Fridays open at noon, not 10am. Both council pages are clear on this, and it is the single most common way to waste a morning here.

The council calls this the seventeenth year of the market, and Kent’s largest free to enter public Christmas market, with around 250,000 visitors across the three weekends.

Quiet shopping times, and where the two council pages differ

Both pages advertise quiet shopping sessions with no music, no fairground sound and no bangs, reduced capacity and a daytime setting. They do not list the same sessions.

The council’s stallholder page, which is the page traders are held to, marks quiet shopping time on the three Fridays only, 27 November, 4 December and 11 December, each from 12pm to 3pm. The Visit Medway page lists those same three Friday slots and adds two Sunday mornings, 29 November and 13 December, 10am to 11.30am.

The Visit Medway page also introduces the list with the words “returning for 2025”. The dates under it are 2026’s: 27 November is a Friday in 2026, and was a Thursday in 2025. It reads like a heading that did not get updated rather than a wrong timetable.

If you are travelling specifically for a quiet session on a Sunday morning, phone the events team before you set off rather than trusting one page over the other.

Getting there, and where to park

Both council pages say the same thing about driving: parking in the centre of Rochester is limited, and visitors are encouraged to use public transport. Rochester railway station is about a five minute walk from the castle gardens.

The council has not yet published its 2026 travel and parking arrangements. Both event pages carry the line that more information “will be published soon”, and as of 4 September there is no park and ride announcement for this year.

What we can tell you is what is normally there. The two car parks nearest the castle, Boley Hill and High Street Two, have 22 spaces each, so on a market Saturday they are a lucky find, not a plan. Rochester multi-storey on Cory’s Road has 280. The full list, with bay counts, tariffs and which ones take cash, is in our guide to parking in Medway. It is also worth checking Medway roadworks and travel before you set out, because the approach roads into Rochester change through the autumn.

Coaches must pre-book. The council takes coach and minibus bookings on 01634 333 433 or through its online form, and it has already flagged that the 5.30pm departure slot on Sunday 6 December is full.

Access

From the council’s getting to Medway page for the market:

• Wheelchair users are directed to the castle gardens entrance on Baker’s Walk, which the council names as the best way in.
• The nearest Blue Badge bays are on The Esplanade. If those are full, every other council car park in Rochester has disabled parking.
• Accessible toilets are in the Castle Gardens, at Northgate, at Rochester Community Hub, which has a Changing Places toilet, and in the Corn Exchange.

Dogs on leads are welcome. Visit Medway adds the sensible warning that the market gets busy and may not suit every pet.

What a stall costs, if you were wondering

The council publishes its 2026 trader prices, and they are worth seeing because they explain why the stalls are not local craft tables:

• 3m by 3m: £2,095 plus VAT, £2,514 in total
• 4.5m by 3m: £3,143 plus VAT, £3,771.60 in total
• 6m by 3m: £4,190 plus VAT, £5,028 in total

That is a flat fee for all nine trading days. The council does not sell single days or separate weekends, takes a £250 deposit with the application and a further £250 damage deposit, and deducts £200 from it for waste left behind. Applications for 2026 closed on Tuesday 1 September.

What is still to come

The council has not yet published the 2026 travel and park and ride arrangements, or the entertainment line-up for the bandstand. Both are usually out in November. We will update this page when they appear.