Bonfires and fireworks

Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes night, is a much-loved date on the Sussex events calendar, with many towns and villages celebrating it between September and November.

The Sussex Bonfires have a 300-year-old tradition of remembering not only the day Guy Fawkes and his band of conspirators were foiled in their plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605, but also the 17 Protestant martyrs burned at the stake as heretics during the reign of Mary I (Bloody Mary) in the 1500s.

While bonfires up and down the country burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, in 1066 Country he is just one of several 'victims'. Each Society chooses its own subject for that year, which may be any person of their choosing – often a politician or celebrity – and it remains a closely guarded secret until the night of the bonfire.