Lewes bonfire night: should it be scrapped?

[Tomos y Tanc]

Moderator note:
Split from

Lewes station not served during bonfire night

Yes, and that highlights the different approaches taken to road and rail - ... except on bonfire night in Lewes because there is no access to the town by road, although the A26 remains open.

www.railforums.co.uk

I'd never heard of this event until I read this thread.

It sounds nasty, unpleasant and anti-Catholic.Surely the answer is just to end it. I'm not familiar with Lewes but I'm willing to bet many people there hate this bull****.

 

[WesternLancer]

I'd never heard of this event until I read this thread. It sounds nasty and anti-Catholic. Surely the answer is just to end it.

Alternatively, it’s an event to mark resistance to religious persecution…(it commemorates Protestants who were burned in the town by the catholic rulers of the country at the time).
So depends on your historical starting point.

But this is off topic.

 

[43066]

That would be participants not spectators. Participants wouldn’t tend to come by train ime.

I don’t understand the distinction? Are you saying local people are more likely to black up? Nobody should ever be doing that. My other half is Ghanaian, and it just isn’t acceptable for anybody to do that these days.

If this kind of behaviour is carrying on, why on earth is this ridiculous event continuing? I’m confident @Wolfie will back me here.

 

[WesternLancer]

I don’t understand the distinction? Are you saying local people are more likely to black up? Nobody should ever be doing that. My other half is Ghanaian, and it just isn’t acceptable for anybody to do that these days.

If this kind of behaviour is carrying on, why on earth is this ridiculous event continuing? I’m confident @Wolfie will back me here.

No

Participants would be members of the various local bonfire societies that take roles in the parades. Spectators would be people who come to watch. That was the distinction I’m making.

But this report suggests the practice is no longer current.

Lewes bonfire society ends tradition of blacking-up

Intervention of dance troupe leader from South Africa leads group to officially end tradition of using black face paint and wearing skulls and horns

amp.theguardian.com

Why does the event continue? Presumably because it’s not illegal and thousands of people want it to continue and pay towards its organisation. It receives no public funding afaik.

But the railway no longer receives any ticket revenue from it when they once would have sold vast numbers of tickets.

 

[AlterEgo]

Moderator note:
Split from

Lewes station not served during bonfire night

Yes, and that highlights the different approaches taken to road and rail - ... except on bonfire night in Lewes because there is no access to the town by road, although the A26 remains open.

www.railforums.co.uk

I'd never heard of this event until I read this thread.

It sounds nasty, unpleasant and anti-Catholic.Surely the answer is just to end it. I'm not familiar with Lewes but I'm willing to bet many people there hate this bull****.

Have you just discovered what Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes is about?

 

[Tetchytyke]

If this kind of behaviour is carrying on, why on earth is this ridiculous event continuing? I’m confident @Wolfie will back me here.

They don't black up anymore, although the practice carried on for quite a bit longer than perhaps it should have done.

It sounds nasty, unpleasant and anti-Catholic.

Not any more, it's mostly just very politicall incorrect fun.

It's not the 12th of July bonfires.

 

[Lockwood]

Since the other discussion has a lot of red text on it about staying on topic of railways...

I worked at that event before the 2016 change. I haven't had the chance to go back due to more local work.

I was meant to be in the control room there. I ended up being dispatched to incidents.

Walking around outside after the event had started, it looked like a scene from a movie. Smoke from the bonfires and fireworks drifting everywhere, a line of taser-equipped police (less common then than now) in armour controlling access to part of the town, a police officer on the ground being tended to by a medical team

I'm not sure what was going on from a police point of view, but seeing how densely packed everyone was and the number of casualties, I can understand why they put controls in place to limit the number of people attending.


Should it be cancelled? I don't think so. Did it need to be controlled? Yeah, I think so

 

[nw1]

Since the other discussion has a lot of red text on it about staying on topic of railways...

I worked at that event before the 2016 change. I haven't had the chance to go back due to more local work.

I was meant to be in the control room there. I ended up being dispatched to incidents.

Walking around outside after the event had started, it looked like a scene from a movie. Smoke from the bonfires and fireworks drifting everywhere, a line of taser-equipped police (less common then than now) in armour controlling access to part of the town, a police officer on the ground being tended to by a medical team

I'm not sure what was going on from a police point of view, but seeing how densely packed everyone was and the number of casualties, I can understand why they put controls in place to limit the number of people attending.


Should it be cancelled? I don't think so. Did it need to be controlled? Yeah, I think so

I visited once in 2005 with some friends and it wasn't anything quite like that. It was popular but there were no controls and few police. Just some road closures (we came in by car) meaning you had to park around 10 mins walk from the town centre, up the hill somewhere on the Brighton side. We did beat the crowds by arriving during daylight (perhaps around 3.30pm) though and then just wandered round the town for a bit until it got dark.

No idea about the trains, but I don't think there were any restrictions. This was some time ago of course, CIGs were still plying the line just a year or so earlier.

The "popery" stuff was a bit - erm - strange (one of the five Bonfire Societies seemed to be particularly obsessed with it), but I suppose the whole premise of November 5th is fundamentally a bit iffy if you think about it. Perhaps we could keep the fireworks but use them to mark Halloween/Samhain instead.