FIREWORKS lit up the sky on a wet and windy night at Oxford’s South Park, with thousands flocking to the display despite the weather.

The annual Oxford fireworks display at South Park took place on Saturday night.

No official count has been completed yet, but thousands came out despite two weather warnings from the Met Office for wet and windy weather throughout the day and into the evening.

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The event, organised by the Oxford Round Table, began at 6.45pm, with a barrage of fireworks lighting up the cloud-filled skies until 7.30pm.

Oxford Mail:

Picture: Ed Nix.

Neil Holdstock, volunteer director for the fireworks thanked everyone who supported the event, describing the turnout as great, despite the weather conditions.

Mr Holdstock said: “It was an incredible fireworks display, probably the best we have ever had.

“From the Round Table and the charity, we’d just like to say thank you to everyone who came out and supported us despite the weather.”

He added: “We have been very lucky with the weather for many years and to cancel or postpone the event would have cost us a lot of money, so to keep our costs down is very important; we do this all for charity in our spare time.

“We are very grateful to our suppliers and our contractors who have reduced prices or done things for free because they realised how the event would have hit us if we cancelled because of the weather.”

Mr Holdstock’s fellow director Chris Langston also thanked everyone who supported the event.

Though the rain fell solidly in the run up to the display, it stopped as the fireworks began.

Following the display, the huge bonfire was lit.

Workers spent all of Friday afternoon building a huge woodpile for the bonfire, using a JCB to transport wooden pallets to the centre of the park as fuel for the blaze.

READ AGAIN here about the huge bonfire stack

The fire burned as high as a house, with heat from the flames warming even distant members of the crowd.

British fireworks champions for 2018, Illusion Fireworks, led the evening’s proceedings.

The fireworks display company is based in Wallingford and also orchestrated a display at Grove Rugby Club on Friday night.

There was also music and entertainment on a stage in the park, as well as fairground rides for families, and hot food.

Oxford Mail:

Picture: Ed Nix.

The Round Table will start counting up the money raised from the evening in the coming weeks.

All profits from the fireworks display at South Park will go towards charities, through the local round table charity.

The Oxford Round Table Charity asks for organisations in search of funding to apply to it for help.

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Local charities which have benefitted from the fireworks display in the past have included Helen and Douglas House and Sobell House.

Mr Holdstock said the Round Table was already planning to return to South Park for a fireworks display in 2020.

He said: “We will be back next year, and hopefully the weather will be kinder to us then.”