To set the scene a little, there are now seven Bonfire Societies in Lewes. There are Cliffe, the biggest, and many say the best, who have a reputation for doing things their way, in their own time, and if you don't like it ... well, tough! They use the skull and crossbones as their emblem, and their first pioneer costume is Vikings. Like all societies, they have a large number of members who dress as smuggles, in striped Guerney jumpers, in Cliffe's case, black and white.Waterloo - my 'local' society, who are based in my area of town, and whose first and last processions come down my street. Very much family oriented, and big on the Royal Family, always having at least one military band on the night. First Pioneer costume is Ghengis Khan, and smugglers colours are red and white.
Commercial Square - second largest society in the town, also very family oriented. First pioneer costumes are Native American, and smugglers wear black and gold.
Borough - famous for their Zulu costumes, which used to scare the life out of me when I was young! Smugglers wear blue and white. Said to be the oldest society in Lewes.South Street - a smaller society from the South Street end of town. Lots of Siamese dancer costumes, with smugglers in brown and white.
Nevill Juvenile - formed around 40 years ago, primarily for the younger people on the Nevill estate. Share their firesite with Borough, and thus have their main celebrations two weeks before Bonfire Night, then march with Cliffe on the night. Smugglers wear green and white.
Southover - reformed in 2005 after a gap of some years. I don't really know much about their costumes yet!
The way Bonfire Night in Lewes works is that from about 5pm, all the main roads into Lewes are closed to incoming traffic, and the town centre is completely closed off as well. The High Street is over a mile long, and is packed with crowds on both sides, most of whom don't come from Lewes. It's a bone of contention that so many 'outsiders' come from far and wide to see the celebrations, when the societies actually hold the events for the people of Lewes. The more people that come each year, the more word gets around as to what a great night it is, thus the crowds get larger every year, not helped by the fact that despite requests from the police, Lewes Bonfire Council, and the Sussex Bonfire Safety Group, the rail company still insists on putting on lots of extra trains into Lewes, rather than only running the normal services.
The societies all hold early processions, which are relatively calm, and mainly for the children and younger members, so that they can take part, and then stay indoors for the evening while their parents and older siblings go out and enjoy the rowdier processions and fireworks later. The first processions are at around 5-5:30pm, then starting at around 6pm, each society marches from it's HQ to the War Memorial, about 3/4 of the way down the High Street. There the Remembrance ceremonies which I discussed in Part 1, are held, before the societies all march to the top end of the town. Cliffe and South Street are last to go up, and first to come back down, as they do not take part in the United Grand, as the other societies do. The Grand takes about an hour to pass a single point, and as each society reaches the bottom of the town, they disperse and head off to their individual firesites, scatted across the town.
The processions start off calmly, and respectfully, until the serious business of Remembrance is over. I wasn't particularly impressed this year when Waterloo were at the point of playing the Last Post and about to discharge their firework set pieces, to see that the proceedings we
re interrupted by members trying to get everyone moved over so that a fire engine could come up the hill. That would have been fine however, if it weren't for the fact that when it finally came through, the firefighters were leaning out of the cab windows, laughing and joking, and quite obviously headed nowhere more inportant than back to the station for a cuppa! I found that quite disrespectful, as it obviously wasn't an emergency at all. The bands were great this year, though I still miss the days when Waterloo used to have the Kings Own Waterloo military band marching with them. I loved the bagpipes and the Morris Dancers, as I always do, and the increasing number of drumming bands that come each year always get the crowds going as well.
This year was the coldest Bonfire Night I can remember, and my padded lumberjack shirt and leggings did *not* work as well as usual! I added a fleece under the shirt when we popped home to get my tripod between the processions and the fireworks, then another pair of leggings under the first pair when we came home after the fireworks and before Bonfire Prayers, and I was *still* too cold to feel
my fingers! Mum and I used to stay at home until after Waterloo's first procession, which we would watch from our balcony, and then go up to the War Memorial, getting there for about 6pm, just before the first Remembrance procession. These days however, there are way too many people for that, and as the celebrations were on a Saturday again this year, I knew it would be busy again. Last year we got to the War Memorial at 4:25pm, thanks to the local Bonfire radio station (yes, Lewes has a dedicated Bonfire station 2 weeks a year!) telling people how busy it was getting, and we still didn't get front row. This year I decided to pop up there at about 4:20 to see how busy it was, and ended up ringing Mum to come up *now* with my camera, as if she wanted front row, it was now or never! We found a gap in the second row, as a few more people arrived before she did, but within 5 minutes a few people left and we nipped into the gap. I sat down on the pavement for the next hour or so, while we waited, and stood up when it started getting really congested behind me.
Each society builds one or more "tableaux" which are basically huge (up to 30ft tall) paper mache and chicken wire models of people or events that have caught the media attention, either locally, nationally, or globally, over the past year. These are dragged through the town in the processions, then ceremonially blown up at the firesite .... when I say "blown up", I mean it literally ... they are *packed* full of various fireworks! The "tabs" can be either complimentary, or quite the opposite... in November 2001 Osama Bin Laden was depicted on the toilet, and various UK and US politicians have also met a fiery end ... some more frequently than others! This year Condoleeza Rice, George W Bush, and Steve Irwin were featured, with the Steve Irwin tab getting rapturous applause, and the other two ... well, imagine 80,000 people all booing at once, and you get the idea! One society built a tableau that showed a large scale map of Lewes, with all the areas that are being sold off or redeveloped over-emphasised, and the slogan "Once upon a time there was a lovely town called Lewes .... then the council sold it to the developers".
As well as the flaming torches, which are carried even by the four or
five years olds, most societies have other flaming banners as well, like their initials, or in Borough's case, the word "Zulu". A few years ago, Cliffe had the words "We Won't Be Druv" - an old Sussex saying. The later processions get more and more rowdy, with lots of rookies and bangers being thrown ... you learn to see when a Bonfire Boy or girl is reaching into their pocket, and look the other way! It's quite unsettling for even experienced Lewesians to see how close some of the bangers land to the edge of the crowds, and visitors to the town are often surprised to discover that Bonfire is so much more intense than a friendly carnival type evening. I'm sure I'll read the usual complaints from outsiders who came on Saturday, in the local paper tomorrow, about the noise and danger of the evening, but my message to them would be "You should have researched before you came, and if that's how you feel, don't bother coming back again."I won't deny that there are always a few injuries and a few arrests, but this year was the lowest for either, in years. I believe there were around 80,000 people this year, with 6 minor injuries - all for burnes from *handling* fireworks incorrectly, and 6 arrests - all drink related. You'd get more incidents than that at a pop concert or sporting event, so please, don't tell me Bonfire is dangerous!
Hmm, I went off on a bit of a tangent there, didn't I? Sorry about that!
We stayed until the end of the Grand Procession passed us by, at around 9:15pm - not that we could have got out from where we were with the barriers in front of us, and the thousands of people behind us, had we wanted to! When people started to move we nipped through the c
rowd and came home for my tripod, to use the facilities, and add clothing, then walked down to Waitrose where I knew Daniel was waiting for Dom. Poor Dom had had to work until 10pm so while Daniel, his mum Helen, and another friend, Debbie, waited at the front of the store for him, I offloaded my tripod onto Daniel, and Mum and I walked round to the back of the store to one of the 100+ food vans that had come to Lewes that night. We queued for about half an hour, just for some chips, then walked back round to the front to meet the others, before making our way down to the fireworks. That's a separate post though :-)Fireworks and Bonfire Prayers coming in Part 3 in a day or two!
