Cuckfield Bonfire and Fireworks returns this November after Covid cancellation in 2020

The popular event, which dates back to the 1880s, starts at 5.30pm in Cuckfield Park with the bonfire being lit at 6.45pm and the fireworks choreographed to music starting at 7.30pm.

Cuckfield Bonfire Society chairman Michael Moore, 54, said this year’s show will provide a ‘classic bonfire’ and hopes it will be a success.

Before the Covid restrictions in 2020 poor weather conditions at the 2019 event meant not as many spectators showed up as usual, he said.

“We had a really bad year,” said Michael, who lives in Cuckfield with his family and has volunteered with the bonfire for more than 15 years.

“The bonfire in 2019 coincided with half term, the rugby world cup and torrential, monsoonal rain throughout the day,” he said.

Michael, who is an operations manager for Tarmac, said many potential spectators decide between 3pm and 5pm if they want to go to the bonfire, and if it is raining at that time it will result in a low turnout.

“In 2019 it was just coming down in stair rods,” he said.

Michael said that money raised at the bonfire always goes towards funding next year’s show and that any surplus cash goes to charity.

But in 2019 the event did not raise enough to cover the price of this year’s bonfire.

Michael said it costs roughly £16,000 each year to stage the event and that committee members have personally underwritten the 2021 show.

This, he said, means they would have to cover the cost if there is a shortfall in the money raised.

However, Michael is confident this year’s show will be truly worth watching, despite the rush to get it sorted.

“The whole planning process normally takes eight to 12 months with just a slow drip of getting things organised,” he said.

“But this year we weren’t told until early September that we would actually go ahead so everything was condensed into an abbreviated period of time.”

This meant the society’s normal firework display people had been scheduled for somewhere else, but ‘at the eleventh hour’ Frontier Fireworks came along.

“It’s a big step for us to have a different firework supplier but they’ve said they’re going to deliver a firework display to remember,” said Michael.

He said that the annual event is special for the village and that the bonfire is always lit by the mayor of Cuckfield, one of his favourite yearly responsibilities.

Schoolchildren also build guys and Susan Mayou from Cuckfield Park judges them.

Putting on this event has its fair share of challenges through, said Michael, explaining that one of the main difficulties is getting enough people to be marshals.