The Effigy

Each year we build an effigy, fill it with different types of fireworks and blow it up after the main firework display. 

The effigy has always been part of Sussex bonfire. Historically the effigy has always been an anti-hero and as such Guy Fawkes exists as an effigy to this day. In Hastings this has often been a caricature of a local figure or an event that has deserved destruction.

One of the first non-Guy Fawkes effigies was a local butcher who had been buying meat direct from Smithfield and therefore undercut local producers. 

The effigy for the year is never known until the day of the display.

Examples at Hastings are as follows :-

2008	The Jerwood Gallery planned for the Stade
2007	A dustbin representing the introduction of wheelie bins by Hastings Borough Council and Sir Walter Butt representing the banning of smoking in public places.
2006	???	????
2005	Guy Fawkes - 400th anniversary of the gunpowder plot
2004	Katie Price (aka Jordan) appearing in the Reality Show 'Get me out of Here!'
2003	Nodding Donkey - marking exploration at Pelham Place to build a hotel on the bonfire site.

Other effigies include

• Hastings Omnibus Company for putting up fares
• A Hastings Postcard in celebration of the town
• Traffic wardens when the new parking scheme was introduced
• Members of the Bonfire Society drinking on the beach as protest about new drinking bylaws
• A fairground ride in protest about more building on the Stade
• A beefbuger as comment on foot and mouth