Huge crowds head to village for bonfire event
Cuckfield Bonfire and Fireworks returned for the first time since 2019 on Saturday (November 6) and has been hailed as a financial success by its organisers.
But the event was spoiled for some by a huge traffic jam and a full car park later in the evening. This meant some ticketholders who planned to arrive for the fireworks finale could not get in.
Paul Pritchard, vice chairman of Cuckfield Bonfire Society, said 2021 was a ‘record year’ that had ‘rescued’ the society after a washout 2019 and a cancelled 2020.
But he said the bonfire team was not prepared for such a large audience even though their website had warned of ‘severe congestion’ near Cuckfield Park.
“At a good event in previous years we’ve had 6,000 people attend so we always plan along those figures,” said Paul, 56, from Cuckfield. “On Saturday night we had 8,000 turn up.”
Paul said this increase was mostly people driving from further afield, which meant 2,000 more ticketholders on the country lanes.
“In our wildest dreams we wouldn’t have imagined we would have had that big of a night,” he said.
But Paul said there were other reasons for the parking and queuing problems.
He said the event had not been oversold, and that the arena had enough capacity, but said the car park had filled up 15 minutes before the fireworks. Parking spaces were ‘subject to availability’, said Paul, but some who booked online might have thought they had reserved spaces, planning to get to the event at 7pm, which added to the congestion.
“We had a new online ticketing system and we set that up to try and speed up entry into the car park,” he added. But he said ‘technical issues’ meant the scanners did not read the tickets, which actually slowed admission to the car park. The number of volunteer marshals was low this year as well, said Paul, so the team was stretched.
Despite these issues, the event itself was successful with more than 6,500 people enjoying a spectacular display in the arena.
“The positive feedback we’re getting is very positive,” said Paul, adding that the attendees, the vendors and the fireworks company had all enjoyed the event.
The gates opened at 5.30pm and the bonfire was lit at 6.30pm but the team delayed the fireworks by 20 minutes to allow more people into the site.
Paul said the fireworks this year were dedicated to the NHS and set to tunes like ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie and ‘For Those About to Rock We Salute You’ by ACDC. Some 6,500 people all sang along to Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ as well, he said, which was one of his personal highlights from the evening.
Among those who were left disappointed was Eddie Howland from Burgess Hill, who said they left home at 6.15pm but got stuck in the traffic jam, and turned away from the full carpark when they finally arrived.
“We’ve got a ten-year-old boy, Brian, and he was looking forward to it all week,” said Eddie, adding that he had paid online weeks in advance.
Paul said the problems would be a ‘major point of discussion’ at the bonfire society’s debrief and that everyone who could not get in should have been messaged by now. “The society does apologise for the delays,” he said. “We have learned a lot of lessons this year and for next year we will be working towards not letting that happen again.”