Mid Sussex festivities to mark 75th anniversary of VE Day

There will be celebrations a-plenty in Mid Sussex to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, with the district council forking out thousands to help fund some of the festivities.

Street parties, tea dances and meals with a 1940s theme were among the 26 projects given £250 grants from the Community & Economic Development pot at a meeting of the cabinet grants panel on Tuesday (February 25).

Age UK East Grinstead plans to lay on a buffet, music and film for 50 of the town’s elderly residents.

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A spokesman said: “The VE Day 75 celebration will be an opportunity for veterans and survivors to share important memories about the war ‘lest we forget’, passing down lessons learned from one generation to the next.”

VE Day – or Victory in Europe Day – saw the surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8 1945, four months before the end of World War Two.

This year’s May Day bank holiday, which is traditionally held on a Monday, will be put back to Friday May 8 to mark the anniversary.

Among the Mid Sussex celebrations to be held over that weekend will be a street party at Ashurst Wood Village Centre, in Maypole Road, on the 8th; another in Barn Cottage Lane, Haywards Heath, on the 9th; while the Copthorne Silver Band will play a Promenade Concert on the village green on the evening of the 8th.

Chairman Norman Webster said it was important for organisers to register their celebrations on the ve-vjday75.gov.uk website, which has compiled a map of all events being held.

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