Laser lights from the Abingdon Bonfire & Fireworks 2025 at Dalton Barracks were visible behind Abingdon School.
The event included a large funfair and bonfire, a laser show set to music,
and a firework display — some of which I caught while cycling through Shippon.
Abingdon has marked Bonfire Night for centuries. In the 17th and 18th centuries the town’s celebrations were simple, neighbourhood events: a bonfire to burn the guy on a patch of common ground to commemorate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot.
Today’s combination of lasers, music, and fireworks would have been unimaginable to our forebears. And what would they have made of holding the celebration ten days after 5th November? Firework displays have moved to weekend dates, with large organised displays, and complicated traffic-management plans.
caused abingdon and district traffic to ground to a halt and the traffic wardens were out in force 9 oclock tonight issuing parking tickets, shame they cant do their job properly during the day
They do this twice a year and I’ve never seen so much traffic on previous occasions. Have they changed the system?
They trialed a new system which perhaps didn’t work? Or they sold more tickets perhaps?
They publish route maps with tickets, showing which way you should approach if driving. Why send cars into and through Abingdon. a34 south and then to the airfield is all that should be required. Whether coming from north or south.
I see someone has started a petition to have this event rebooked at. How far away was the music heard?
We let off our own this year, on the 5th. Was fun.
Asides from traffic problems, it sounds like the firework display was obscured for some by bonfire smoke, because the bonfire was really wet.