EVENTS

Ways to celebrate Bonfire Night

By Sheila McWattie

- Last updated on GMT

Lord Clifden: Will offer a £50-per-head Jacobean banquet with musical entertainment and a speaker offering insights into the Gunpowder Plot
Lord Clifden: Will offer a £50-per-head Jacobean banquet with musical entertainment and a speaker offering insights into the Gunpowder Plot

Related tags Bonfire night Guy fawkes night

From a rich banquet to bonfire barbecues, Pub Food showcases some of the best ideas in the run up to this year's Bonfire Night, on 5 November.

Jacobean banquet

To commemorate the era of Guy Fawkes and provide safe bonfire-free entertainment in the city, Urban Art Bars’ Lord Clifden in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, will zoom back in time to 1605 with an opulent Jacobean banquet (£50 each, including traditional mead and other drinks).

Owner Graham Smith and his team will dress a marquee outside the pub in gothic style with candles and Renaissance-style art “with a modern Urban Art Bars-style twist”, to prepare for the event that includes musical entertainment and a speaker offering insights into the Gunpowder Plot.

Advertising via the pub’s website, social media, internal posters and adverts on the menus is expected to attract a capacity crowd of 50.

Keen on Mustard Pot

On Bonfire Night, from 6pm to 11pm, the team at the Mustard Pot in Chapel Allerton, West Yorkshire, will ensure the annual Mustard Pot bonfire is a fun, family affair and focal point.

Owner Ben Stickland says: “This will be our sixth year of hosting the annual bonfire gathering.

“We are happy to welcome bonfire-lovers free of charge. This year we’re offering a broader selection of food to cater for our varied local demographic, including homemade veggie chilli, pie & peas, and hot food from the barbecue grill (£5 per dish).

“We aim for about 400 to 500 people on the night so it is a very busy, fast-paced environment, with safety at the top of our agenda.”

Memorable night

At Enterprise lease, the Five Bells, in Chailey Green, East Sussex, licensee Andy Wiles is preparing for a major community-focused event on Saturday 8 November, when one of the area’s famous bonfire groups, the Chailey Bonfire Society, will attract a crowd of at least 1,000 with a spectacular local bonfire.

Wiles anticipates the pub’s entertainment and hog roast (£6), burgers (£5) and sausage rolls (£3) will attract about 200 revellers, with an outside bar helping to cater for increased wet sales.

A heated marquee will accommodate the audience for Juice, a live band playing rock ’n’ roll covers.

The Chailey Bonfire Society will then stop at the Horns Lodge Inn, in South Chailey — Brighton & South Downs Campaign for Real Ale Country Pub of the Year for four consecutive years (2011 to 2014). Co-owner Mike Lethern describes it as the freehold pub’s “busiest night of the year”.

All-round entertainment

The OC Club at Knockaloe Hall, in Bromborough, the Wirral, includes guy-throwing, children’s face-painting, fairground rides and a spectacular firework display in its popular bonfire celebrations.

Held on Friday 7 November, tickets for the entertainment cost £8 for adults and £5 for children. A DJ will provide music from 7pm to midnight.

A barbecue is also available and the well-stocked bar, specialising in real ales, opens until midnight (though children must leave by 9.30pm to enable the premises to comply with licensing regulations).

Family fun

The South Causey Inn, in County Durham — voted Great British Pub Awards Family Pub of the Year 2013, has chosen Thursday 6 November to celebrate Bonfire Night this year.

Outdoor barbecued food will be served from 5pm, when the music also begins. At 6pm the bonfire will be lit and the fireworks begin at 6.30pm.

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