LEISURE: Bang! 50 years not out for charity fireworks

PLANS are progressing well in readiness for this year’s Fireworks Spectcular which will be hosted jointly by Yeovil Lions Club and Yeovil Round Table.

Organisers are busy preparing for the ever-popular bonfire and fireworks festivities which this year will take place at Yeovil Showground on Saturday, November 3, 2018.

This year will be a special one for the organisers as it will be the 50th event of its kind and they will be looking to make it bigger, better and more spectacular than ever before.

But the organisers are not giving too much away just yet – they don’t want to spoil any surprises.

Needless to say, however, that they are already setting their sights on the big night and hope to raise a lot of money for charity.

“The event takes about a year to plan and the paperwork is enormous to meet all the regulations covering such events,” said a spokesman.

“It now takes about a week to set up and on the day requires 80 volunteers to operate and man the event along with all the specific staff hired in for various functions.

“Over the 50 years we have raised approaching £500,000 which the Lions Club and, more recently, Yeovil Round Table have put back into the local community.

“We would like to thank the public for helping us raise this money and using it to assisting good and worthy causes locally.”

The original Yeovil Lions Club held its first fireworks night back in 1966 and organised a show at the Yeovil Showground for the past 39 years prior to 2008 – although there have been some years when the event did not happen due to Foot and Mouth restrictions.

Yeovil Lions Club and Yeovil Round Table have jointly organised this event since 2010.

Originally the fireworks were bought by the club members, stored in their garages, set up and fired by them.

The event took about a day to set up and there was very little paperwork other than a few invoices and the members taking a day off to help.

The Bennett family, who own the Showground, and Yeovil Agricultural Society, who organise the day to day running of it, were and still are very helpful in allowing the clubs to use the showground annually for the event.

The event has grown over the years and become much more than fireworks and a bonfire with the introduction of live music, a funfair and other attractions to keep people entertained.

The event now attracts around 5,000 people each year and tickets for the 2018 festivities will be available to buy online in early October.

More "positive news" from the Yeovil area can be found in the September edition of the Yeovil Press - Community Newspaper. Out now for FREE from outlets in and around Yeovil.

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