Fireworks at IVC; 6 Nov 10

Bonfire night doesn’t seem to be the same these days. I guess there are some grounds to be grateful for that but I do remember when it was the autumn event. Halloween, now so beloved of the supermarkets which sell the related trash, was largely ignored. There were ‘penny for the guy’ merchants in the streets, you could buy penny bangers, and we did and we through them at people’s front doors, and people ended up injured because they got reckless: just about every household had a bonfire.

That’s not to say that there were no big events as well. I remember going to the council bonfire in Connah’s Quay and I’m pleased to see that there’s a free display there this year: in Wepre Drive which presumably puts it at the top end of the street where I used to live. But I don’t recall any great firework displays in those days, just a big bonfire which generated plenty of heat and pushed the spectators ever further away.

in the 30 or so years after I left Connah’s Quay first for Uni and then to work around the world bonfire nights didn’t feature in my calender until I returned to live in Wilmslow with a wife and 2 kids. The latter of course had to be entertained and we went to an excellent bonfire and fireworks organised by the Round Table. And that’s still running too. However I seem to recall that in those days it was always wet so that we dragged ourselves home with shoes caked in mud.

Big events are now the norm of course and in Cambridge this weekend you could go to the City event on Midsummer Common on Friday evening or, like me, to one of many village based events last night. There was no bonfire but there was a hog roast, now apparently de riguer at such events, and a good pot of money was collected to be divied up between the local schools.

The fireworks themselves were good but was I a tad disappointed? I’d been a few years ago and I seem to remember something better and I suspect that the short break half way through was a glitch. However I used the opportunity to try out a new fast lens for my SLR and was not disappointed although the fireworks themselves were a bit of a point and shoot lottery.

Fireworks of course are no longer the exclusive preserve of bonfire nights. I remember a superb event on the Thames to celebrate some Singapore Airlines anniversary in the late 70s. In Switzerland we always had good displays on the first of August. And I’ve even been to a Tory midsummer barbeque in Huntingdon when there was a spendid show.