Having a few open air cinema evenings in our district sounds quite an exciting idea – at least in principle. Under its “Commercialisation” heading the District Council is allowing Essex Outdoor Cinema to hold events in Sweyne Park and Hockley Woods this year:
June 6th – Hockley Woods – Shakespeare in Love
June 7th Hockley Woods – Film TBC
August 15th – Sweyne Park, Rayleigh – Grease
The Sweyne Park event wasn’t discussed with the ward councillors nor with the Friends of Sweyne Park. We have asked for information about numbers of tickets (these are ticket-only events) and other issues like car parking, toilets, noise levels and specific location in the park. When we have the answers we’ll do an update. (We have also asked RDC to contact the Friends Group over this.)
UPDATE 6 PM FRIDAY:
We’ve received the following information today from RDC:
Essex Outdoor Cinema (EOC) is the organisation producing the event. They will supply all infrastructure including stewards, security, fencing, First Aid, litter picking, toilets, and temporary exit lighting. The event is produced at no cost to the Council except some Officer time to assist with joint promotion and providing advice around health and safety and event management. Risk Assessments and Event Management plans have been received from EOC and will be presented at a Safety Advisory Group.
Working with Essex Outdoor Cinema on the promotion of the event is important as the arrangement is that Box Office income is shared equally between the organisation and the Council.
This event has come about through an initiative at the Council for employees to come up with ideas that might generate income and further corporate priorities ? in this case increasing use of open spaces through public events….…. A Temporary Event Notice (TEN) for Sweyne Park would allow a maximum of 499 audience members. The same numbers would be permitted under a TEN at Hockley Woods, but in conjunction with EOC, RDC officers have agreed that 300 should be the maximum given that the event ?arena? (the clearing) and parking is reduced in size compared to Sweyne Park.
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Sweyne Park Location: Area near the lake. The mobile cinema screen will back on to the lake with audience on the hill. The screen will be roped or fenced off.
Parking: Rayleigh Leisure Centre
Weather: The events will go ahead in all conditions except where high winds might be a safety risk (e.g. cinema screen falling)
Gates open 7pm
Showing 8.45pm to 10.45pm
Site completely clear by 11.30pm
Noise : ?Average outdoor screenings produce around 75dbs of sound. We have designed the sound equipment so that a) it doesn’t need to run at excessive volumes – the quality is such that we can achieve great sound without turning it up to levels that would disturb local Residents and b) it is angled to minimize the sound dispersion – the way the speakers
are set up contains the sound without much spread. Sound levels can be monitored throughout the event and we are able adjust the mix as the film plays to ensure we get the balance right.?
Any Thoughts?
Advertised in Rochford Matters but price appears to be £12 a head. Seems a bit high?
Any thoughts….yes, let’s go for it ( and we live alongside the park ). At last something fun and positive, can I be the only person sick and fed up with the constant negative posts on this site recently ?
Share that positivity OZ, totally agree with you x
I agree with The Mighty Oz here there does seem to be more than the usual amount of negativity and complaining around recently, even over this event. I am hearted by the fact that someone who lives nearby is happy about it.
Decided that rather than moan about it, I’d rather join in. Looking forward to it!