Pretty much every October for the past 15 years, Dalston Eastern Curve Garden has filled up with hundreds of gorgeous pumpkin lanterns, carved by local children and families. For one week, the gourds are filled with candles and placed all over the garden, making for a truly magical sight. 

But this year that won’t be the case: Dalston Pumpkin Lantern Festival at Eastern Curve Garden is cancelled for 2026. Don’t worry, it’s not going for good. It’s just taking a year off due to an exceptionally dry summer and an overwhelming number of visitors at last year’s festival. 

In an Instagram post, organisers explained: ‘Taking a year off from the festival has not been an easy decision. However, this summer’s prolonged extreme temperatures, drought and hosepipe ban has meant that all of our focus and efforts have – and still are – going into keeping our plants alive, restoring the Garden and planning for future challenging environmental conditions.’

The post added that in 2025, the festival saw an unprecedented number of visitors. More than 20,000 people showed up throughout the week and long queues left many families unable to get in. It noted that many of the attendees were not people who had carved the pumpkins and that groups of adults were ‘crowding out’ families, meaning that ‘at times it no longer felt like the magical experience that our team of staff and dedicated volunteers work so hard to create’.

Rest assured, the Dalston Pumpkin Lantern Festival will be back. The garden said that it’s exploring ways in which it can make sure the event maintains the community atmosphere that makes it so special. 

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