BONFIRE NIGHT EARLY
FUNDRAISING UPDATE
We'll be running fundraising events throughout the year, and updating here as to how much has been spent and raised, so that villagers get a full picture of what's being done. Scroll down for other information, too.
LIKELY COST OF THE BONFIRE NIGHT EVENT: £5,000-£6,000
Running total of cash so far raised towards the event:
£1,803.188 (it will be around £2,200 once the Bingo Night profit is calculated, as per the below)
June 8 Pub Quiz at The Bear
Expenses: £0
Raised: £160.70
Thanks to Alice for hosting, and to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge.
May 31 Bingo night at the Village Hall
Expenses (rough calculation, come back later for the exact amount):
Bingo caller: £100
Hall: £55
Food and paper bowls: c.£70
Drinks (including 1x Crémant-and-chocolates prize) and ice: c.£231.03
Total: £456.03
Additional expenses: £175 prize money
Total expenses inc prizes: c£631.03
Income (from tickets and the bar): yet to be calculated - come back later for the exact amount - but around £1,000-£1,100.
Profit: as above, yet to be finalised, but it should be £400-£450ish. We were helped by the fact that quite a bit of the booze we sold was left over from that which was bought for the Chequered Souls band night; we still have booze in the bag for future events too.
May 18 pub quiz at The Stirrup Cup
Expenses: £0
Raised: £70
Thanks to Julian for hosting.
April 30 donation from the Feoffees:
Expenses: £0
Donated: £500
April 27 Bisley Artisan Market raffle and tombola:
Expenses: £0
Raised: £285 (£132 raffle, £153 tombola).
Special thanks to Kirsty Harris for donating the raffle proceeds and allowing us to run a tombola; to Dawn Lane for lending, erecting and removing the PTA gazebo; to Julian Partridge at The Stirrup Cup and Alice Willow at The Bear for allowing us to place tombola prize donation boxes in the pubs; to everyone who dinated prizes and bought tickets; and to Sam Collins, Lou Painter, Nicki Brand, Isabella Collins, and Eleanor Collins for manning the tombola.
April 13 pub quiz at The Bear:
Expenses: £0
Raised: £120.50
Thanks to Alice for hosting,to Mike Waite for supplying the PA free of charge, and to Phil Bradley for cooking the curry.
March 22 band night with The Chequered Souls at the Village Hall
Expenses:
a) Band - £540
b) Village hall - £64
c) Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and ice - £387.65
Total: £991.65
Income (tickets and bar): £1381.55
Profit: £389.60
Additionally, we still have around £450 worth (at our retail prices) of booze bought for this event left over which went unsold and which will be sold at future events, generating more revenue.
March pub quiz at The Stirrup Cup
Expenses: £0
Raised: £157.38
February pub quiz at The Bear
Expenses: £0
Raised: £120
LIKELY COST OF THE BONFIRE NIGHT EVENT: £5,000-£6,000
Running total of cash so far raised towards the event:
£1,803.188 (it will be around £2,200 once the Bingo Night profit is calculated, as per the below)
June 8 Pub Quiz at The Bear
Expenses: £0
Raised: £160.70
Thanks to Alice for hosting, and to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge.
May 31 Bingo night at the Village Hall
Expenses (rough calculation, come back later for the exact amount):
Bingo caller: £100
Hall: £55
Food and paper bowls: c.£70
Drinks (including 1x Crémant-and-chocolates prize) and ice: c.£231.03
Total: £456.03
Additional expenses: £175 prize money
Total expenses inc prizes: c£631.03
Income (from tickets and the bar): yet to be calculated - come back later for the exact amount - but around £1,000-£1,100.
Profit: as above, yet to be finalised, but it should be £400-£450ish. We were helped by the fact that quite a bit of the booze we sold was left over from that which was bought for the Chequered Souls band night; we still have booze in the bag for future events too.
May 18 pub quiz at The Stirrup Cup
Expenses: £0
Raised: £70
Thanks to Julian for hosting.
April 30 donation from the Feoffees:
Expenses: £0
Donated: £500
April 27 Bisley Artisan Market raffle and tombola:
Expenses: £0
Raised: £285 (£132 raffle, £153 tombola).
Special thanks to Kirsty Harris for donating the raffle proceeds and allowing us to run a tombola; to Dawn Lane for lending, erecting and removing the PTA gazebo; to Julian Partridge at The Stirrup Cup and Alice Willow at The Bear for allowing us to place tombola prize donation boxes in the pubs; to everyone who dinated prizes and bought tickets; and to Sam Collins, Lou Painter, Nicki Brand, Isabella Collins, and Eleanor Collins for manning the tombola.
April 13 pub quiz at The Bear:
Expenses: £0
Raised: £120.50
Thanks to Alice for hosting,to Mike Waite for supplying the PA free of charge, and to Phil Bradley for cooking the curry.
March 22 band night with The Chequered Souls at the Village Hall
Expenses:
a) Band - £540
b) Village hall - £64
c) Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and ice - £387.65
Total: £991.65
Income (tickets and bar): £1381.55
Profit: £389.60
Additionally, we still have around £450 worth (at our retail prices) of booze bought for this event left over which went unsold and which will be sold at future events, generating more revenue.
March pub quiz at The Stirrup Cup
Expenses: £0
Raised: £157.38
February pub quiz at The Bear
Expenses: £0
Raised: £120
NEXT BONFIRE NIGHT FUNDRAISER
- DISCO AT THE VILLAGE HALL (SATURDAY JULY 5)
Youth club disco vibes from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s hit Bisley in July, when ‘Gloucestershire's Cheesiest Old-School Disco' arrives at the Village Hall.
A DJ playing hits from the aforementioned decades, lots of boogying, pints of cider and black (and other slightly more sophisticated drinks), eyes meeting across a crowded dance floor, and - who knows - maybe some snogging...
Period dress is not required, but if you dig out your flares or ra-ra skirt you could win the prize for best disco outfit.
Tickets are only £5, and are now available from TicketSource and (cash only) from the pubs, the Farm Shop, and the Green Shop.
A DJ playing hits from the aforementioned decades, lots of boogying, pints of cider and black (and other slightly more sophisticated drinks), eyes meeting across a crowded dance floor, and - who knows - maybe some snogging...
Period dress is not required, but if you dig out your flares or ra-ra skirt you could win the prize for best disco outfit.
Tickets are only £5, and are now available from TicketSource and (cash only) from the pubs, the Farm Shop, and the Green Shop.
OLDER BONFIRE NEWS BELOW:
BISLEY BONFIRE NIGHT 2025
- MEETING UPDATE
We held a meeting at The Stirrup Cup on Thursday March 6 to begin planning for the bonfire night do.
There were about a dozen people there and a similar number of apologies, so we have the makings of an excellent committee. I'm sure other people would also like to be involved - it's open to everyone, just email [email protected].
We announced the date - Friday November 7, 2025; this is the day before the Chalford and Miserden events, so pyromaniacs such as the webmaster will be able to attend Bisley and AN Other.
The fireworks will be put on by Star Fireworks, a major company who do (among others) the Marling show.
The whole event is likely to cost at least £6000 (and this might be an underestimate, depending on what we can get donated); all costs (and profits) will be placed on this page as they come in, for the purposes of transparency.
At this stage, the webmaster is personally guaranteeing the costs (a named person has to book the fireworks), so for obvious reasons he's keen to make sure it at least breaks even.
To that end, as you know we're going to be running fundraising events.
We've already had a pub quiz in The Bear which raised £120, and other events are detailed below.
Additionally, the trustees of the Bisley Community Group fund, which received cash from Bis Up, have agreed to donate.
Kate Bankes at Copsegrove is giving a donation in return for a one-off Mummers performance at her September feast.
Alice is going to do a bingo night; Kirsty's April market raffle will be in aid of the bonfire bash (and we'll be running a tombola too).
There will be more through the year - please keep your eye on this page and the Bisley Community Facebook page for details.
We will also be applying to the Parish council and the Feoffees for financial support, on the basis that if you don't ask you don't get.
Beyond that, we will make a serious effort to sell promote and tickets ahead of time. If we can get the sorts of crowds the event had in the pre covid/with bonfire days we think it should more than break even.
In the event that we actually make a profit we discussed the possibility of retaining that profit, or at least a proportion of it, in the Bisley Community Group account to help ensure the viability of the event going forward.
Any excess over and above any retained funds will be divided between the following four organisations - the Flower Show, the church, the village hall, and the PTA.
In return each of these organisations will take care of a discrete part of the event.
Who does what will need formalising by the committee (see below), but it involves areas such as burgers and other food, glowsticks, etc.
As above, we are going to set up a proper committee.
We have already emailed people who were there on the night and expressed interest, but if we've missed you out, or you weren't able to attend but would like to be involved, please email as above.
Once the committee is formalised we will look to arrange a meeting to agree the above and other issues in more concrete terms.
Re fundraising events, please do come along to either (or ideally both) of the following.
(If you can only do one, make it the live music night - beer and wine will be very reasonably priced.
Tickets available at this link.
There were about a dozen people there and a similar number of apologies, so we have the makings of an excellent committee. I'm sure other people would also like to be involved - it's open to everyone, just email [email protected].
We announced the date - Friday November 7, 2025; this is the day before the Chalford and Miserden events, so pyromaniacs such as the webmaster will be able to attend Bisley and AN Other.
The fireworks will be put on by Star Fireworks, a major company who do (among others) the Marling show.
The whole event is likely to cost at least £6000 (and this might be an underestimate, depending on what we can get donated); all costs (and profits) will be placed on this page as they come in, for the purposes of transparency.
At this stage, the webmaster is personally guaranteeing the costs (a named person has to book the fireworks), so for obvious reasons he's keen to make sure it at least breaks even.
To that end, as you know we're going to be running fundraising events.
We've already had a pub quiz in The Bear which raised £120, and other events are detailed below.
Additionally, the trustees of the Bisley Community Group fund, which received cash from Bis Up, have agreed to donate.
Kate Bankes at Copsegrove is giving a donation in return for a one-off Mummers performance at her September feast.
Alice is going to do a bingo night; Kirsty's April market raffle will be in aid of the bonfire bash (and we'll be running a tombola too).
There will be more through the year - please keep your eye on this page and the Bisley Community Facebook page for details.
We will also be applying to the Parish council and the Feoffees for financial support, on the basis that if you don't ask you don't get.
Beyond that, we will make a serious effort to sell promote and tickets ahead of time. If we can get the sorts of crowds the event had in the pre covid/with bonfire days we think it should more than break even.
In the event that we actually make a profit we discussed the possibility of retaining that profit, or at least a proportion of it, in the Bisley Community Group account to help ensure the viability of the event going forward.
Any excess over and above any retained funds will be divided between the following four organisations - the Flower Show, the church, the village hall, and the PTA.
In return each of these organisations will take care of a discrete part of the event.
Who does what will need formalising by the committee (see below), but it involves areas such as burgers and other food, glowsticks, etc.
As above, we are going to set up a proper committee.
We have already emailed people who were there on the night and expressed interest, but if we've missed you out, or you weren't able to attend but would like to be involved, please email as above.
Once the committee is formalised we will look to arrange a meeting to agree the above and other issues in more concrete terms.
Re fundraising events, please do come along to either (or ideally both) of the following.
(If you can only do one, make it the live music night - beer and wine will be very reasonably priced.
Tickets available at this link.
