Lewes Bonfire Night Festival

What: Remem­ber, Remem­ber the Fifth of Novem­ber …. Com­mem­o­rat­ing Guy Fawkes plot to blow up the Unit­ed Kingdom’s Hous­es of Par­lia­ment in 1605 and Sev­en­teen Protes­tant Mar­tyrs, the small town of Lewes,  dubbed the ‘bon­fire cap­i­tal of the world’ plays host to a spec­tac­u­lar bon­fire and fire­work show.

The event begins with a wreath lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny and then the car­ry­ing of 17 burn­ing cross­es through the streets of Lewes in remem­brance of the mar­tyrs, before a series o races, a cer­e­mo­ni­al bar­rel run – which involves the pulling of alight tar bar­rels through the streets, before end­ing with the parad­ing and then burn­ing of 30ft high effi­gies of guy Fawkes, the pope and whichev­er polit­i­cal fig­ures have found them­selves on the wrong side of soci­ety that year and a fire­works show – which helps to ensure there is no rea­son the gun­pow­der trea­son will ever be for­got.

When: The Lewes bon­fire night takes place on the 5^th Novem­ber.

Where: The first wreath cer­e­mo­ny begins in Lewes town cen­tre, with the fire­work dis­plays then host­ed by dif­fer­ent bon­fire soci­ety across the town. The pro­ces­sion of effi­gies march through the cen­tre of Lewes town cen­tre and then to pre-defined routes, end­ing up at their respec­tive burn­ing sites – which are tick­et only- on the out­skirts of town. 

Dura­tion: The Bon­fire Night pro­ces­sion begins at 5pm, when the lights begins to fade, with the main pro­ces­sion tak­ing place at 8pm and the fires and fire­works start­ing at 9pm and last­ing till around 1am.  

Tick­ets: There is no cost for the city cen­tre and watch­ing the parade. To ful­ly expe­ri­ence the fes­ti­val it is rec­om­mend­ed to attend the Cliffe, Southover, south street or water­loo bon­fire soci­ety events for which there are tick­et­ing costs, tick­ets can be pur­chased from the soci­ety web­sites with more info at http://www.lewesbonfirecelebrations.com.

Need to Know: Wrap up very warm as Eng­lish Win­ters can reach freez­ing tem­per­a­tures & expect Crowds – Lewes is a small town so con­di­tions can be a lit­tle cramped, the more info site below has a rec­om­men­da­tion of the best spots to take for a full view of the fes­ti­val and parade.

More Info: For more infor­ma­tion on the Lewes bon­fire, includ­ing tick­ets, the his­to­ry and access vis­it the offi­cial lewes bon­fire site at [www.lewesbonfirecelebrations.com]