Burning the Clocks raises a fantastic £7k – but with £30k costs, spectators asked to donate £2 each to ensure its survival

The organisers of Burning the Clocks announced today that it raised £7,000 from the public for the annual lantern parade – but has asked people coming along in future years to give even more.

Brighton Sussex 21st December 2015 - Thousands of people including local schools take part in the Burning the Clocks winter solstice parade in Brighton tonight . Burning the Clocks is a winter solstice festival that takes place each year in Brighton organised by the Same Sky arts group and was started in 1993 Photograph taken by Simon Dack — By Simon Dack

Same Sky raised £4,030 from an online crowdfunding drive, and another £3,534.86 from bucket collections on the night.

But the arts charity’s artistic director John Varah said that with total costs of £30,000 and no guarantee it will receive the same grants in future years, he was asking spectators to donate between £1 and £2 each to make sure the event carries on.

He said: “The event is funded through a variety of sources, but we haven’t secured enough to guarantee the event for 2016.

“We currently make about £3,000 from lantern pack sales, £4,000 from our crowdfunding campaign and £3,500 from our bucket collections on the night.

“Additional funding comes from sponsors, including Brighton University, Brighton and Hove City Council and a range of smaller companies and individual donors.

“However, it’s not enough to cover the event’s total costs – we have received other grants that have helped us cover the additional costs in the past couple of years, but it’s not guaranteed for the future.

“Hence, we would ask every spectator at future events to donate £1-2 – this would be enough to secure the following year’s parade and firework display.”

Speaking about last year’s event, which attracted 20,000 people, Mr Varah said: “We had an incredible turn out on the night of people in the parade and spectators along the route – and the rain stayed away during the parade and the fireworks.

“We especially want to thank the kind people who donated on the night, our wonderful volunteer bucket collectors and the 93 supporters who donated online to our crowdfunding initiative. We simply couldn’t make it happen without them.”

Additional events in the run up to Burning the Clocks, held as usual on 21 December to mark the winter solstice, included a special lantern-making workshop for children on 20 December at the Phoenix Gallery. There was also a lantern-making workshop at Patterns – part of its monthly craft afternoon, Monthly Milk.

Help fundraise for the event online here.