Category: Membership

Get Bonfire-ready for our Big Night

Posted on by Karen Burns

Calling all members of Southover Bonfire Society, we’ve refreshed our points to remember for the lead up to Bonfire Night and the night itself on Tuesday November 5 2024. You will have already signed our full safety and Society rules which you find on our Membership page.

Here are some key points to remember:

Fireproof, fireproof, fireproof – please make sure you and your family are liberally spritzed with the stuff!

Just being a member of Southover Bonfire Society does not entitle you to take part in Bonfire Night. You must have paid your yearly subscription and come along to one of our Badge Nights to collect your special Badge and get a 2024 sticker on your Membership Card. You need both your 2024 updated Membership Card and 2024 Badge with you to be part of our night. Marshals are checking and you will be asked to leave the procession if you don’t have both of these with you. You will also be denied access to the fire site and fireworks.

Listen to the SBS Captains and marshals at all times – they will direct you in terms of torches, the supervision of any children in your care, and make sure you are walking in ranks of three people across the road. This allows for our marshals and other safety officials to be able to pass between the many 100s of members who are processing on the night.

Please don’t bring kids in prams, pushchairs or buggies into the processions. It’s a fire risk and can block others who are processing safely.

If you are responsible for any junior members under the age of 16, make sure they march within the same rank as you. If you have more than one child with you, please put them in the rank in front of you where you can see them at all times.

Respect your fellow Society members, the public and our rules or run the risk of being asked to leave the Society there and then.

Stay safe and have fun – Advance!
SBS Membership Team 2024

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Final badge night 2023

Posted on by Sarah Monk
Our wonderful Barrels team work so hard at Bonfire and it’s much appreciated. Photo copyright of Ian Cumming. Photos can be purchased from www.southoverbs.com website. Any problems or questions, please contact photos@southoverbs.com

Deadline for members!

Our final Badge Night is this Friday (Nov 3) from 6pm-8pm at our HQ The Swan. That will be the last opportunity to get your Membership Card updated with this year’s sticker and pick up your 2023 Badge if you want to participate in the big night. Please bring your Membership Card with you. If you can’t find it, then you will need to pay for a replacement and get a temp card. In either case, you will also have had to renew your membership online in advance of Badge Night by following this link:

https://membermojo.co.uk/southoverbs/yourmembership

You need both your 2023 updated Membership Card and 2023 Badge with you in order to process on Bonfire Night. Marshals are checking and you will be asked to leave the procession if you don’t have both of these with you. You will also be denied access to the firesite and fireworks. Any queries, please contact membership@southoverbs.com

Plus, even if you are all sorted, our final Badge Night is a great event. We’ve restocked our merchandise and clothing stalls so all those last-minute purchases can be made. Once our Badge Night has shut up shop, there is also the opportunity to join your fellow Bonfire buddies at The King’s Head from 8.30pm for some more banter etc. There won’t be any membership renewals, merch or clothing stalls available at The King’s Head.

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Picture perfect

Posted on by Sarah Monk

It was a smokin’ hot event and there are some absolutely brilliant photos you can buy to remind yourself of our brilliant Big Night.

Our online photo gallery is chocka with stunning images of Bonfire from our crew of photographers.

Definitely worth buying as a percentage of the purchase price goes to Society funds (helps raise funds for next year) and the gallery is growing every time. A big shout out goes to all our photographic wizards (you can see who took each shot by their initials on each photo or copyright across the image).

Big thanks go to: EH – Emma Howard; HW – Hugh Wilton; IC – Ian Cumming; JM – James McCauley; NP – Nigel Powell; WP – Wilf Power; WR – Willie Robb.

Please do note that photos taken of SBS members and/or with their family at SBS events, may be stored on our gallery and used in our membership communications, and on our social media channels, including Twitter, Instagram and our website.

If you do not wish your photo(s) to be used in this manner, please contact communications@southoverbs.com with further details and a copy of the image (s) concerned.

Photo copyright Emma Howard
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Thank you and good night

Posted on by Sarah Monk

Thanks to everyone who bought a firesite ticket; coughed up for our action-packed programme; and said a Bonfire prayer with us at the very end of the night.

Thanks to our members who make our Society so fantastic to be a part of.

Thanks to our countless volunteers who put it all together – and it does actually take 364 days to do it (and we always need more Society members to lend a hand).

We are now knackered. And that’s official.

Advance to 2022!

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Our A-Z of Bonfire

Posted on by Sarah Monk

A is for Advance!! Southover’s clarion call.

B is for Bonfire! What else would it stand for? Oh, and Buccaneers, our 2nd Pioneers.

C is for cake (wot fireworks come from, innit).

D is for discipline – epitomised by the superb ranks of three in which our members process. (Well, we try!)

E is for excitement. It’s year round and not just reserved for the Fifth.

F is for fireworks; the Fifth List – which Emma cracks her whip to complete; and our Firesite Force led by Captain Jim.

G is for gorgeous, lovely, members of Southover Bonfire Society (now pay your subscriptions)

H is for hessian – our Waitrose-quality version is woven by elves and unicorns (amazing what they can do with their horns). It’s also for Hedge Fund – local rumour is that most SBS-ers work in finance. Well, if we did, we wouldn’t have to run so many fabulous fund raising events!

I is for ideas, and plenty of them, so that our Tab Team and our Small Builds Team can create amazing masterpieces. Which we then blow up on the night. (Doh)

J is for jaunts. We have a few of these in our Society. Some call them outmeetings and they’re a very special part of the Bonfire experience.

K is for kerosene – our Bonfire version of Chanel No 5 – in which we lovingly dip our 3,500 torches every year. Dip, dip hooray to Nick the Knife and his gang.

L is for love, the love we have for Bonfire. It’s a smokin’ hot way to get some exercise.

M is for merchandise – lots of lovely stock with all sorts of goodies and managed superbly by our Captain of Merch Shireen. Also for those naughty monks – the Cluniac priory ones of Lewes and our 1st Pioneers.

N is for nuns – we’ve introduced Nun of the Above and Nun Such plus their sisters to bring holy disorder to our Cluniac ranks.

O is for ‘Oh I can’t believe you actually make your own torches and don’t rent them from East Sussex County Council for the night’. (Yes, someone did say that in 2011!)

P is for pyro mania – the energy fizzing through the crew bringing our aerial display spectacularly to life. Nuff said!

Q is for Quartermaster – our lovely Bill ‘don’t mess with my bits and bobs in the stores’ Barber.

R is for rum – elixir of the gods and a fab ingredient in the hip flasks of Lewes.

S is for smugglers – the stripey crew that every Bonfire Society has and loves. Truly loves. Truly…loves.

T is for torchmaking – but these aren’t just any torches, they’re SBS torches, notched and whipped up in hand cut hessian, with bespoke wire twisting, then dipped in magical kero so they burn, baby, burn. Thanks to all the SBS-ers who turn up on Sundays to join the Torchmaking Tornados.

U is for U, the public, who buy our Bonfire programme and fire site tickets and help us keep it all alight.

V is for volunteers – without whom we wouldn’t be able to thrive as a Society. It’s also for vajazelling – a wonderful technique used to overly decorate one’s costume. (Allegedly)

W is for Wilson, our Society mascot, a kero-loving, torch-throwing canine, whose ‘Ruff Guide to Bonfire’ is a sell-out on Amazon.

X is what marks the spot where we have our bonfire in the Convent Field.

Y is for ‘Y not?’ A good response to any new member who wonders if they should join one Pioneer group or all of them.

Z is for the ZZZZs we partake of. But only once the Fifth is over!

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2nd Badge Night and hell of a way to spend the evening

Posted on by Sarah Monk

Be afraid, our 2nd Badge Night is on Halloween, this Sunday (October 31), 6pm-8pm, at our HQ The King’s Head, coinciding spooktacularly with some other festival.

So why not do both? So all you Southover Bonfire Society members, go out on your trick or treating, then pop on down for some Bonfire Banter, to pick up your Badge, buy some lovely merchandise from Shireen (new fleeces, masks and lots more) and upgrade your costume. If anyone still wants to clothes swap, donate or sell, please contact Fiona on 07775 654744. It’s cash only for merch and costume.

(PS: calling all SBS captains, lieutenants, marshals, you are meeting at The King’s Head from 4.30pm-5.30pm with our Commander in Chief).

We would also seriously suggest you do a lateral flow test before you turn up and definitely don’t come along if you’ve got Covid or anything cold-like.

Don’t forget you do need to have renewed your membership online in advance of Badge Nights. To renew your membership, follow this link: https://membermojo.co.uk/southoverbs/yourmembership

Please also remember to bring your red plastic SBS Membership Card(s) with you to Badge Nights as we need to update them all with a 2021 sticker.

You need both your 2021 updated Membership Card and 2021 Badge with you in order to process on November 5. Marshals are checking and you will be asked to leave the procession if you don’t have both of these with you.

You will also be denied access to the firesite and fireworks. Any queries, please contact membership@southoverbs.com

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Deadline for lost cards

Posted on by Sarah Monk

Calling all members of Southover Bonfire Society, please make sure you check you’ve still got your Membership Cards. If you’ve lost yours or members of your family have, you need to order replacements NOW!

Replacement cards can be ordered before midday Saturday October 23 2021, for £3 each for collection at the remaining Badge Nights. Please email membership@southoverbs.com with “Replacement Card Order” in the subject field; a Mojo payment request will then be sent for completion.

In addition, if you are coming to the final two Badge Nights on Sunday October 31 and Thursday November 4, please remember to bring your red plastic SBS Membership Card(s) with you as we need to update them all with a 2021 sticker.

Don’t forget you do need to have renewed your membership online in advance of Badge Nights.

And finally…you need both your Membership Card and Badge with you in order to process on November 5. Marshals are checking and you will be asked to leave the procession if you don’t have both of these with you. You will also be denied access to the firesite and fireworks.

For more information on all things membership, check out the Membership page on this website.

Photo courtesy of Ian Cumming.

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