Arts charity Same Sky has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise £5,000 towards the cost of staging one of Brighton’s best-loved nights out – Burning the Clocks.
This is the third year that the charity has turned to crowdfunding – with incentives – to keep the winter solstice festival afloat.
The Burning the Clocks parade takes place from 6.30pm on Wednesday 21 December from New Road to the seafront. It usually attracts around 2,000 participants and more than 20,000 onlookers.
The organisers said: “Depending on the size of their donation, crowdfunding investors will be rewarded with personalised lanterns, the privilege of lighting the event’s bonfire or VIP passes to watch the event from a prime location on the beach and attend the event’s first after-party.
“One of the new packages in this year’s crowdfunder is a pre-made ‘In Memory’ lantern for people who have lost someone during the year to celebrate their life.
“This reflects the event’s creation, which enables participants to say goodbye to the previous year and be prepared to enter the new year on the year’s longest night – the winter solstice.”
Same Sky’s artistic director John Varah said: “We’re bringing our crowdfunding initiative back for the third year running as it plays such a crucial role in keeping Burning the Clocks alive.
“Each year Same Sky relies on the generosity of the general public to make donations along the event route as well as supporting our online crowdfunder.
“Our winter solstice event has been an integral part of Brighton’s winter calendar for more than two decades but we rely on the support of local residents and sponsors to make it happen.”
The theme for Burning the Clocks 2016 is “Nonsense”. Same Sky has created a large-scale comet, “Harbinger”, for this year’s event.
The 15ft x 6ft (5m x 2m) animated piece of mobile street art uses multimedia technology to light its head, body and tail.
It will appear in various locations around Brighton and Hove in the run up to the parade.
As in previous years, people living in Brighton can buy lantern packs to take part in the parade. They cost £25 to £28.
Lantern packs containing construction materials and four wristbands for four people to take part in the parade are available from early this month at the Royal Pavilion, the Wood Store at Preston Barracks, in Lewes Road, and Book Nook in First Avenue, Hove.
Burning the Clocks began in 1993 as an “antidote to the excesses of a commercial Christmas”, created by Same Sky, the arts charity that organises the Brighton Festival Children’s Parade.
For Burning the Clocks, which is popular with children and adults alike, Same Sky said: “People bring the paper and willow lanterns that they’ve made to parade through the city before passing them into a huge bonfire on Brighton beach.
“Each lantern maker becomes a part of the show as they invest the lanterns with their wishes, hopes and fears and then pass them into the fire.”
The show includes a fireworks display, with crowds watching from the beach, the prom and in some cases from boats near the shore.
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