BONFIRE NIGHT UPDATE
2025 REPORT
The Big Bisley Bonfire Night Bash 2025 was a great success - we covered our costs, and made a profit (see below), and the Flower Show, church, school, and village hall committee also raised money for their various needs.
We have had a couple of complaints from horse owners whose animals were scared by the fireworks; this is despite the fact that we ordered a quieter display. Unfortunately, ‘quieter' doesn't mean silent, or even quiet - fireworks still make noise and, while we certainly sympathise, we take the view that one fifteen-minute display once a year is not too much to ask. (We have also had many emails and messages from people commenting on how relaxed their animals were, and very good feedback generally.)
A fuller financial report will appear soonish on the BONFIRE NIGHT tab above, but for now thanks to everyone who came and particular thanks to the many volunteers without whom the whole thing simply could not happen.
I hope I forget no-one when I mention:
Dave Partridge, Russ Ridler Dutton, Jules Painter, Ben Hoy, Rog Standly, and Loukie and Lourens Brand, who helped build the enormous bonfire with Tim and Dan. It took three hours on Saturday morning, in what was often foul weather, using (I guesstimate) three or four tons of wood, to build the fire under the expert eye of Jules, our nominated fire marshal. Dave and Loukie spent half the morning collecting and dropping off wood, and Jules was busy with his chainsaw for about the same time.
Jo Partridge, Tracy Brown, Andrew Phillips and Iain Neighbour, who manned the junction of Cheltenham Road and Van der Breen Street, under lighting provided by Allan Sapsed powered by electricity provided by Dave Brown.
Paddy and Sarah Clatworthy, Rog S and Cat Parker, Iain Pooley, Isabella Collins, Eleanor Collins, Will Purkiss, Colton Martinez, Diana Chapman, and Rowan Preston, who manned the entrance gates in what was, again, often horrible weather early on. (Cat was also on hand as a DBS checked chaperone in case of lost kids – there were none, luckily.)
These were just the volunteers involved in the event side of things – there were many more people working on the Bisley Flower Show bar, and the church, school, and village hall stalls cooking food, and selling hot chocolate and glow toys for youngsters.
I don’t know the names of everyone there, and it’s not our place to pick out people individually who were working for those organisations, but I must mention Thurston and Sarah Gray and Tim Fleming, who also helped out on our side when needed. (Tim in particular hung around with us until the small hours – we had to watch the fire until it was safe to leave.) I’m sure everyone else would have helped, and many probably did, but these are the ones who spring to mind.
The event was planned with the aid of a committee including Dawn Lane, Nicki Brand, Sue and Phil Bradley, Di Chapman, Sam Collins, Russ and Vanessa Ridler-Dutton, Lizzie Morris (who was one of our first-aiders on the night, the other being Colton), and Louise Painter.
We would also like to thank the Parish Council, for their help and support – in particular, Graeme Baldwin, who met us at the site several times to chat stuff through, and the clerk, Heather Finlay.
Graeme and Janet also very kindly agreed to allow us to piggyback on their Wi-Fi for ticket sales and for the food and drink tent.
The indefatigable Paul Bryan set up the Wi-Fi piggyback system, worked for a long time to get it right, and was there until long after the event had ended to take everything down again.
Chris Ashmead and Dan Adkin and all at Bisley Marquees and Hire need a special thank you for volunteering to let us have a generator and the lighting and portable loos completely free of charge; this saved us both the headache of worrying about getting hold of these things, and obviously quite a lot of money. Their staff were there on Friday to plan and deliver some stuff, then on Saturday with more, and then on Sunday to take down.
Kate Andrews and her staff at Bisley Farm Shop and Alice Everdine Willow and her staff at The Bear kindly sold tickets for us.
Bluebell Andrews and her granny Jane Neighbour also sold tickets and raised money through posies of flowers picked by Bluebell and sold at the farm shop in the summer.
Fittingly, Bluebell won the guy competition (jointly with Madeleine Staples).
Thanks also to Shane Nash and Graduate Gardeners who will be clearing away and disposing of the bonfire ash later this week.
Also to David Buy and David Morgan for their advice on health and safety and risk assessments.
To Roger Budgeon at the Green Shop, Graduate Gardeners, and Chalford Building Supplies for providing and delivering wood for the fire.
Finally (and I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone) we would like to thank The Feoffees, Debs May and Lucie Tattersall-Debrot from their time at the Bisley News, John and Caroline Stephen, Nigel Rogers and the church coffee morning group, Kate and Martin Bankes at Copsegrove Farm, and Dave Partridge, who all made financial donations.
We started planning this event a year ago, and it is so nice to see it all happen with everyone enjoying it.
When the marshals were standing by the fire watching the fireworks all we could hear behind us was little kids shouting ‘Wow!’ and ‘Did you see that? That was amazing!’
It’s been six years since children in Bisley had a bonfire night and fireworks do to go to, and we hope they remember this one for a long time (and are able to come back next year).
Who knows? Eventually they may end up organising one!
Dan C and Tim H, on behalf of Bisley Community Group.
The Big Bisley Bonfire Night Bash 2025 was a great success - we covered our costs, and made a profit (see below), and the Flower Show, church, school, and village hall committee also raised money for their various needs.
We have had a couple of complaints from horse owners whose animals were scared by the fireworks; this is despite the fact that we ordered a quieter display. Unfortunately, ‘quieter' doesn't mean silent, or even quiet - fireworks still make noise and, while we certainly sympathise, we take the view that one fifteen-minute display once a year is not too much to ask. (We have also had many emails and messages from people commenting on how relaxed their animals were, and very good feedback generally.)
A fuller financial report will appear soonish on the BONFIRE NIGHT tab above, but for now thanks to everyone who came and particular thanks to the many volunteers without whom the whole thing simply could not happen.
I hope I forget no-one when I mention:
Dave Partridge, Russ Ridler Dutton, Jules Painter, Ben Hoy, Rog Standly, and Loukie and Lourens Brand, who helped build the enormous bonfire with Tim and Dan. It took three hours on Saturday morning, in what was often foul weather, using (I guesstimate) three or four tons of wood, to build the fire under the expert eye of Jules, our nominated fire marshal. Dave and Loukie spent half the morning collecting and dropping off wood, and Jules was busy with his chainsaw for about the same time.
Jo Partridge, Tracy Brown, Andrew Phillips and Iain Neighbour, who manned the junction of Cheltenham Road and Van der Breen Street, under lighting provided by Allan Sapsed powered by electricity provided by Dave Brown.
Paddy and Sarah Clatworthy, Rog S and Cat Parker, Iain Pooley, Isabella Collins, Eleanor Collins, Will Purkiss, Colton Martinez, Diana Chapman, and Rowan Preston, who manned the entrance gates in what was, again, often horrible weather early on. (Cat was also on hand as a DBS checked chaperone in case of lost kids – there were none, luckily.)
These were just the volunteers involved in the event side of things – there were many more people working on the Bisley Flower Show bar, and the church, school, and village hall stalls cooking food, and selling hot chocolate and glow toys for youngsters.
I don’t know the names of everyone there, and it’s not our place to pick out people individually who were working for those organisations, but I must mention Thurston and Sarah Gray and Tim Fleming, who also helped out on our side when needed. (Tim in particular hung around with us until the small hours – we had to watch the fire until it was safe to leave.) I’m sure everyone else would have helped, and many probably did, but these are the ones who spring to mind.
The event was planned with the aid of a committee including Dawn Lane, Nicki Brand, Sue and Phil Bradley, Di Chapman, Sam Collins, Russ and Vanessa Ridler-Dutton, Lizzie Morris (who was one of our first-aiders on the night, the other being Colton), and Louise Painter.
We would also like to thank the Parish Council, for their help and support – in particular, Graeme Baldwin, who met us at the site several times to chat stuff through, and the clerk, Heather Finlay.
Graeme and Janet also very kindly agreed to allow us to piggyback on their Wi-Fi for ticket sales and for the food and drink tent.
The indefatigable Paul Bryan set up the Wi-Fi piggyback system, worked for a long time to get it right, and was there until long after the event had ended to take everything down again.
Chris Ashmead and Dan Adkin and all at Bisley Marquees and Hire need a special thank you for volunteering to let us have a generator and the lighting and portable loos completely free of charge; this saved us both the headache of worrying about getting hold of these things, and obviously quite a lot of money. Their staff were there on Friday to plan and deliver some stuff, then on Saturday with more, and then on Sunday to take down.
Kate Andrews and her staff at Bisley Farm Shop and Alice Everdine Willow and her staff at The Bear kindly sold tickets for us.
Bluebell Andrews and her granny Jane Neighbour also sold tickets and raised money through posies of flowers picked by Bluebell and sold at the farm shop in the summer.
Fittingly, Bluebell won the guy competition (jointly with Madeleine Staples).
Thanks also to Shane Nash and Graduate Gardeners who will be clearing away and disposing of the bonfire ash later this week.
Also to David Buy and David Morgan for their advice on health and safety and risk assessments.
To Roger Budgeon at the Green Shop, Graduate Gardeners, and Chalford Building Supplies for providing and delivering wood for the fire.
Finally (and I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone) we would like to thank The Feoffees, Debs May and Lucie Tattersall-Debrot from their time at the Bisley News, John and Caroline Stephen, Nigel Rogers and the church coffee morning group, Kate and Martin Bankes at Copsegrove Farm, and Dave Partridge, who all made financial donations.
We started planning this event a year ago, and it is so nice to see it all happen with everyone enjoying it.
When the marshals were standing by the fire watching the fireworks all we could hear behind us was little kids shouting ‘Wow!’ and ‘Did you see that? That was amazing!’
It’s been six years since children in Bisley had a bonfire night and fireworks do to go to, and we hope they remember this one for a long time (and are able to come back next year).
Who knows? Eventually they may end up organising one!
Dan C and Tim H, on behalf of Bisley Community Group.
BONFIRE NIGHT FUNDRAISING 2025
EVENTUAL COST OF THE BONFIRE NIGHT:
£4,438.20
This ended up being quite a bit cheaper than expected. First of all, the fireworks company did us a good deal. Secondly, Bisley Marquees and Hire supplied our lighting, generator and portaloos free of charge; this was a tremendous gesture by Chris Ashmead, Dan Adkin and the family and company generally. One or two other items ended up being a bit cheaper than feared, and we begged and borrowed other stuff from the Flower Show and school PTA. (For instance, Dawn Lane very kindly provided poles and rope to cordon off the fire, which would have cost £100-200 had we had to buy it.
Our income was £5,469.13.
This was broken down as follows:
Ticketsource: £3,478
Card sales on the gate: £795.78
Cash sales (Bear, Farm Shop, and on the gate): £1,195.35
This means our total profit was £1,030.93.
When added to the other monies raised and detailed below, we now have enough in the bank account going forward to give us a great head start on next year's events.
(All monies are being held by Bisley Community Group in the group's bank account.)
SUNDRY EXPENSES:
Printing ink: £62.90 + £44.99
Printer paper: £7.50
Laminator: £22.99
Laminator sheets: £9.99 x 2
Total: £158.45
FUNDRAISING EVENTS INCOME:
October 12 Pub Quiz at The Bear
Expenses: £0
Raised: £120
Thanks to Alice for hosting, to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge, and to Eleanor Collins for questions.
Bisley Mr and Mrs
A great evening, organised by Russ Ridler Dutton, compèred by Rob Eaton (wqith help from Isabella and Eleanor Collins); thanks also to Paul Bryant (sound and light), Ness Ridler Dutton, Colton Marties and Will Purkiss (bar), Alice and Kate at The Bear and Bisley Farm Shop (for selling tickets), and all who came to watch. Special thanks, of course, to the four couples who bravely volunteered to take part. Congtaulations to Ollie and Ruper Miles, who came out on top!
Expenses:
Bar: £249.89 (red wine and cider - the beer was all bought earlier and retained from other events such as the Bisley Music Festival, which boosted our profit)
Hall: £50.50
Income:
Tickets and bar: £1,304.04
Profit: £1,039.65
We have retained some money as a float for the December 6 Christmas Party with The Vinyl Remnants and have also given 2x floats of £20 each to The Bear and Bisley Farm Shop to help with selling bonfire night tickets.
September 14 Pub Quiz at The Bear
A bit down on numbers but still a good evening had by all.
Expenses: £0
Raised: £76
Thanks to Alice for hosting, to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge, and to Kim McCroddan for questions.
Music Festival
A great event attended by some 350 people, the Music Festival raised a significant amount of money for the Bonfire Night Bash. Here is the accounting:
Expenses:
Bar (beer, lager, cider, wine, soft drinks and 0% alcohol, and ice: £2,102.54
Bar crisps: £33.98
Bar water container: £8.59
Bar serving bins: £98.68
Wristbands: £11.98
Bread, burgers and sausages, tomato sauce: £442.34
Pint/half pint cups: £79.78
Portable toilets: £354
Event insurance: £304
TENS licence: £21
Music licence: £48.84
Equipment PAT testing: £55
Stage and lighting: £452
Bands: £1,250
Total expenses: £5,272.73
Income (a mixture of bar, burgers, and tickets, with a small payment from Midnight Pizza):
Zettle (kindly supplied by the Flower Show): £3,732.86
Ticketsource: £1,599
Pizza concession: £90
Cash: £1,811.90
Total income: £7,233.76
Profit: £1,961.53
Note: some of the above equipment - principally the serving bins and water container - will be re-used next year, making that a slightly more profitable event before we even begin, and quite a lot of the above booze has been retained undrunk and so represents pure profit to be gathered in at Mr and Mrs, and other Bisley Community Group events further in the future.
The organisers would like to thank all the volunteers, especially those who took time off work and provided their own equipment - this was very generous. A special mention to Nigel Rogers' son-in-law Adam, who printed all of our posters free of charge.
August 10 Pub Quiz at The Bear
A reasonable turnout - a couple of teams who had booked tables failed to show, which is a bit unfair - others might have been turned away.
Expenses: £0
Raised: £83
Thanks to Alice for hosting, and to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge.
July 13 Pub Quiz at The Bear
Slightly down on numbers with the Wimbledon Men's Final and a gripping Test match between England and India on the telly!
Expenses: £0
Raised: £93
Thanks to Alice for hosting, and to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge.
July 12 Bluebell Andrews
Bluebell and her granny Jane Neighbour again spent the morning selling posies of flowers from Jane's garden at the Farm Shop (which is run by Bluebell's mum, Kate) for £1 and raised £22.
Thanks once again Bluebell and Jane!
Expenses: £0
Raised: £30
July 5 disco at the village hall
Expenses:
Booze/ice: £265.20
DJ: £200
Hall: £55
Total expenses: £520.20
Income:
Tickets and bar: £1,058.40
Profit: (£1,058.58-£520.20) £538.20
A special thanks to Kate Andrews and the staff at Bisley Farm shop and to Bev and the Stirrup Cup for selling around 30 tickets for the event between them.
July 5 Bluebell Andrews
Bluebell and her granny Jane Neighbour spent the morning selling posies of flowers from Jane's garden at the Farm Shop (which is run by Bluebell's mum, Kate) for £1 and raised £30.
Thanks so much Bluebell and Jane!
Expenses: £0
Raised: £30
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:
Bingo caller: £100
Hall: £55
Food and paper bowls: £58.62
Drinks (including 1x Crémant-and-chocolates prize) and ice: £214.48
Prize money: £175
Total expenses: £603.10
Income:
Tickets (TicketSource): £140
Tickets (Stirrup Cup): £150
Tickets (Bear): £150
Bar (Zettle): £297.67
Bar (cash): £396.50
Total income: £1134.17
Profit: (£1134.17-£603.10) £531.07
Note: these figures are slightly inflated because we were able to use some of the excess drinks bought for the Chequered Souls evening which was left unsold, and thus didn't go against in the ‘expenses' tab above. 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
£4,438.20
This ended up being quite a bit cheaper than expected. First of all, the fireworks company did us a good deal. Secondly, Bisley Marquees and Hire supplied our lighting, generator and portaloos free of charge; this was a tremendous gesture by Chris Ashmead, Dan Adkin and the family and company generally. One or two other items ended up being a bit cheaper than feared, and we begged and borrowed other stuff from the Flower Show and school PTA. (For instance, Dawn Lane very kindly provided poles and rope to cordon off the fire, which would have cost £100-200 had we had to buy it.
Our income was £5,469.13.
This was broken down as follows:
Ticketsource: £3,478
Card sales on the gate: £795.78
Cash sales (Bear, Farm Shop, and on the gate): £1,195.35
This means our total profit was £1,030.93.
When added to the other monies raised and detailed below, we now have enough in the bank account going forward to give us a great head start on next year's events.
(All monies are being held by Bisley Community Group in the group's bank account.)
SUNDRY EXPENSES:
Printing ink: £62.90 + £44.99
Printer paper: £7.50
Laminator: £22.99
Laminator sheets: £9.99 x 2
Total: £158.45
FUNDRAISING EVENTS INCOME:
October 12 Pub Quiz at The Bear
Expenses: £0
Raised: £120
Thanks to Alice for hosting, to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge, and to Eleanor Collins for questions.
Bisley Mr and Mrs
A great evening, organised by Russ Ridler Dutton, compèred by Rob Eaton (wqith help from Isabella and Eleanor Collins); thanks also to Paul Bryant (sound and light), Ness Ridler Dutton, Colton Marties and Will Purkiss (bar), Alice and Kate at The Bear and Bisley Farm Shop (for selling tickets), and all who came to watch. Special thanks, of course, to the four couples who bravely volunteered to take part. Congtaulations to Ollie and Ruper Miles, who came out on top!
Expenses:
Bar: £249.89 (red wine and cider - the beer was all bought earlier and retained from other events such as the Bisley Music Festival, which boosted our profit)
Hall: £50.50
Income:
Tickets and bar: £1,304.04
Profit: £1,039.65
We have retained some money as a float for the December 6 Christmas Party with The Vinyl Remnants and have also given 2x floats of £20 each to The Bear and Bisley Farm Shop to help with selling bonfire night tickets.
September 14 Pub Quiz at The Bear
A bit down on numbers but still a good evening had by all.
Expenses: £0
Raised: £76
Thanks to Alice for hosting, to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge, and to Kim McCroddan for questions.
Music Festival
A great event attended by some 350 people, the Music Festival raised a significant amount of money for the Bonfire Night Bash. Here is the accounting:
Expenses:
Bar (beer, lager, cider, wine, soft drinks and 0% alcohol, and ice: £2,102.54
Bar crisps: £33.98
Bar water container: £8.59
Bar serving bins: £98.68
Wristbands: £11.98
Bread, burgers and sausages, tomato sauce: £442.34
Pint/half pint cups: £79.78
Portable toilets: £354
Event insurance: £304
TENS licence: £21
Music licence: £48.84
Equipment PAT testing: £55
Stage and lighting: £452
Bands: £1,250
Total expenses: £5,272.73
Income (a mixture of bar, burgers, and tickets, with a small payment from Midnight Pizza):
Zettle (kindly supplied by the Flower Show): £3,732.86
Ticketsource: £1,599
Pizza concession: £90
Cash: £1,811.90
Total income: £7,233.76
Profit: £1,961.53
Note: some of the above equipment - principally the serving bins and water container - will be re-used next year, making that a slightly more profitable event before we even begin, and quite a lot of the above booze has been retained undrunk and so represents pure profit to be gathered in at Mr and Mrs, and other Bisley Community Group events further in the future.
The organisers would like to thank all the volunteers, especially those who took time off work and provided their own equipment - this was very generous. A special mention to Nigel Rogers' son-in-law Adam, who printed all of our posters free of charge.
August 10 Pub Quiz at The Bear
A reasonable turnout - a couple of teams who had booked tables failed to show, which is a bit unfair - others might have been turned away.
Expenses: £0
Raised: £83
Thanks to Alice for hosting, and to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge.
July 13 Pub Quiz at The Bear
Slightly down on numbers with the Wimbledon Men's Final and a gripping Test match between England and India on the telly!
Expenses: £0
Raised: £93
Thanks to Alice for hosting, and to Mike Waite for providing his PA free of charge.
July 12 Bluebell Andrews
Bluebell and her granny Jane Neighbour again spent the morning selling posies of flowers from Jane's garden at the Farm Shop (which is run by Bluebell's mum, Kate) for £1 and raised £22.
Thanks once again Bluebell and Jane!
Expenses: £0
Raised: £30
July 5 disco at the village hall
Expenses:
Booze/ice: £265.20
DJ: £200
Hall: £55
Total expenses: £520.20
Income:
Tickets and bar: £1,058.40
Profit: (£1,058.58-£520.20) £538.20
A special thanks to Kate Andrews and the staff at Bisley Farm shop and to Bev and the Stirrup Cup for selling around 30 tickets for the event between them.
July 5 Bluebell Andrews
Bluebell and her granny Jane Neighbour spent the morning selling posies of flowers from Jane's garden at the Farm Shop (which is run by Bluebell's mum, Kate) for £1 and raised £30.
Thanks so much Bluebell and Jane!
Expenses: £0
Raised: £30
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:
Bingo caller: £100
Hall: £55
Food and paper bowls: £58.62
Drinks (including 1x Crémant-and-chocolates prize) and ice: £214.48
Prize money: £175
Total expenses: £603.10
Income:
Tickets (TicketSource): £140
Tickets (Stirrup Cup): £150
Tickets (Bear): £150
Bar (Zettle): £297.67
Bar (cash): £396.50
Total income: £1134.17
Profit: (£1134.17-£603.10) £531.07
Note: these figures are slightly inflated because we were able to use some of the excess drinks bought for the Chequered Souls evening which was left unsold, and thus didn't go against in the ‘expenses' tab above. 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
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 - Saturday November 1, 2025; this is the week before the Chalford and Miserden events, so villagers will be able to attend Bisley and other events.
The fireworks will be put on by Firemagic, who provided the pyrotechnics here for many years.
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.
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 - Saturday November 1, 2025; this is the week before the Chalford and Miserden events, so villagers will be able to attend Bisley and other events.
The fireworks will be put on by Firemagic, who provided the pyrotechnics here for many years.
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.
