Shropshire Star

Film fans share thoughts on planned re-launch of Market Drayton festival

Movie fans gathered at the Festival Drayton Centre to share their thoughts on the planned re-launch of Festival Film Theatre.

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Pictured left to right: Mr and Mrs Potter talking with volunteer Brian Plested at the event

The community-owned entertainment venue at Market Drayton plans to revive the event this September. The team has invited the community to see the plans and have their say for what they would like to have there.

The centre regularly shows mainstream and offbeat films in its main auditorium, but the Festival Film Theatre has gone mostly unused in previous years, since past attempts to run a community film programme were unsuccessful.

The first of two open days was held on Friday at the centre in Frogmore Road. Staff and volunteers laid out food and drinks, put on a film in the background and asked those who attended to weigh in on the films that they proposed to play in the revamped theatre.

Though they had hoped for a better turnout, they are pleased with the format and the input from the people who came, and are hopeful the next one will generate more responses.

New possibilities

Centre manager Robyn Edwards said: "We were really pleased with how it went in terms of the way we set it out and the format we put it in.

"We had a film in the background, nibbles, drinks and surveys to fill out.

"The way it was formatted we were really pleased with.

"We put a mixture of 10 films that we like and we got people to vote."

"We didn't get the numbers through the door we were hoping though, we hope when we do the second one which is in the school holidays that we will get more people."

She said that the previous programme using the Festival Film Theatre had been restricted because of its license and what kinds of film they could show, but that now there are exciting new possibilities including for themed 'seasons' of films.