"A bonfire for the 21st century"

The Guy Fawkes celebration has traditionally involved as large a bonfire as the community could put together; the regulatory apparatus that has been erected to 'manage' such events, however, has grown so opaque that many places have elected to scrap the fires altogether; the Evening Standard reports a novel solution: the virtual bonfire. 

Officials at Ilfracombe Rugby Club haven't held a bonfire night for four years --after being put off by the mountain of paperwork and regulations set by council chiefs.

 
But this year they opted to show a FILM of the blaze instead to get round the strict rules surrounding the lighting of fires at public events.

 
Recorded images of a roaring real fire were projected onto a 16ft by 12ft screen mounted on a scaffolding stand - at a cost of £300.

 
Organisers even used giant heaters, lighting and a smoke machine to give the crowd the taste of a real bonfire night.

 
The sound of crackling wood was also broadcast on loudspeakers and £2,500 fireworks were fired into the air.

One of the attendees pretty well summed up the event, from my perspective:

"Goodness knows what our ancestors would think if they saw us all crowded around a picture of a bonfire instead of a real one. They would probably think we were crazy. But it was actually brilliant fun.

 
"Not quite the real thing and there was no Guy Fawkes. But the kids loved it --it was like going out and watching television at the same time."

'Our ancestors would think we were crazy' and "it was like going on and watching television at the same time".  One can be grateful that the entire business of the historical Guy Fawkes and the anti-Catholic prejudice associated with the festival seem to have disappeared; still: crazy and crazier.