Unusual lake venue for cinema classics
YOU can watch the stars under the stars in a bold new venture at this year's Arundel Festival - Cinema on the Lake.
A big-screen will show cinema classics over three nights on Swanbourne Lake at the start of the festival. The featured films will be The Birds, Psycho, A Matter Of Life And Death and Casablanca - iconic movies that you very rarely get the chance to see on anything larger than your TV.
It's another of the innovations brought in by Glenda Harkess, artistic co-ordinator for the festival. Glenda sees it as a key way of involving an area of Arundel which is too often outside the festival.
"I was thinking about what a beautiful place Swanbourne Lake is and what could we do there to utilise it and bring that end of the town into the festival. People consider it a bit far out, but we want to include the whole of the town.
"I wanted something that would make it part of the festival. I was talking to a technical friend of mine who said 'open-air cinema!', and it has just escalated from there."
Logistically it has not been a nightmare, but the health and safety aspects have been crucial considerations. Glenda says that the event, which runs over three evenings, could take a thousand people a night in comfort but that for a first year, she would be happy with half that number.
"It's an expensive thing to set up. The equipment is expensive to hire and there is not a strong enough power supply there. There is a lot of hiring and you have to get in the extra toilets. Our budget is about 12,000 which for us is big, but I am confident it will work."
To minimise the costs, Glenda has set up her own company with Neil Tiplady to organise the event, Starlight Cinema Classics. She is hoping that it will go on to enjoy a life elsewhere. Cinema on the Beach is a possibility; and she'd love to take it to, say, Petworth.
And in that respect, the big Arundel adventure is a try-out for all that might follow.
As for the choice of films, Glenda has gone for classics that don't generally get a big-screen airing.
The season kicks off on Friday, August 20 from 7.30pm with the David Niven classic A Matter of Life And Death. Saturday, August 21 from 7.30pm brings a Hitchcock double bill, The Birds and Psycho, finishing at around 1am (blankets and warm clothing will be a must, Glenda stresses). The debut season finishes on Sunday August 22 from 7.30pm with Casablanca. More details on www.arundelfestival.co.uk. The Arundel Festival runs from August 20–30.
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 09 February 2012
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