Last week, thousands of festivalgoers donned their sunglasses and boots and flocked to Chelmsford’s V Festival to see the likes of Beyoncé, Kings of Leon and Calvin Harris performing in the Essex countryside. Revellers enjoyed a weekend of sunshine but, in true festival fashion, the bursts of rain and the cold nights had fans rushing back to their tents to avoid the mud and recover before doing it all again the next day.
Those fortunate enough to be in Virgin Media’s exclusive Louder Lounge were able to rest their wellie-worn feet in Cineworld’s “festival film zone”; a converted shipping container transformed into a pop-up cinema offering beanbags, blankets and cinema snacks and drink to film buffs and those who weren’t quite ready to return to their sleeping bags.
The brand-building move was an extension of Cineworld’s summer road show, where they had visited six key cities to promote their subscription service ‘Unlimited’ and to remind people of the power of cinema. Cineworld’s VP of marketing Justin Skinner explained how involving cinema in the festival buzz was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate to an outgoing, sociable crowd why cinema continues to be the most engaging and exciting medium for watching films.
He explained, “Since we have these containers we didn’t want to limit it to going on the road with a sales pitch. So we decided to go on the road from a brand perspective to show people what we can deliver in terms of a great experience at Cineworld.
“The idea of having a pop up cinema at a festival with people who like music and love to go out and show them what we can do really appealed. So we’ve tried to deliver the ultimate experience, something that’s unique and never been done before.”
Festivalgoers could use the film zone to escape from the bustle for a couple of hours or continue to socialise in a more ambient setting; reasons regular cinemagoers often offer when explaining their motives for visiting in everyday life.
The pop-up cinema launched on Friday night with an exclusive preview screening of the Linda Boreman biopic Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried, and was repeated in the early hours of Saturday morning due to the demand of the earlier showing. Guests of the Louder Lounge were also able to see films including Anchorman, Pulp Fiction, Jaws, The Big Lebowski and The Blues Brothers. The sausage and egg muffins that accompanied The Hangover screening on Sunday morning gave attendees the well-received boost they needed to make it through the last day of the festival. Empire Magazine was also on hand to share some of their exclusive insider knowledge with attendees before the films.