FrightFest

I always got served pretty quickly in Wetherspoons despite how crowded it was.

A few people mentioned the issues around the post-Carnival crowd - this was a bit difficult on Sunday and Monday post-last film. Only downside of the location for the Bank Holiday weekend.

Vue: great.

Shepherds Bush: a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Paul McEvoy posted on twitter earlier ...

Interesting @FrightFest Fact. IF we were in Leicester Square our Opening Night would have been a disaster as there was a huge power cut.

Best venue for hosting 70+ feature films IMHO

Sounds like most people preferred the new location but I have to disagree. Living in South London, I always travelled to previous FFs from home each day but this year had to book a hotel nearby as driving/bussing/training it back and forth every day just wasn't on. I guess this isn't an issue for out-of-towners though, who would be getting a hotel regardless.

I must admit the actual cinema was better, but if Vue West End was closed for a refurb, shouldn't that now be much improved?

I'm not a fan of Leicester Square - the tourists, the drunks, general aggressive vibe - but cinema aside, I didn't think much of the Shepherd's Bush locale either; it's a pretty shabby area IMO and also gets the overspill from Notting Hill Carnival. Very few choices of places to go for a beer between films either, if you wanted to be outside - basically it's just Belushis, with its tiny strip of tables on the pavement. Not a patch on The Comedy Pub!

So yeah, great cinema and organisation of the fest itself, but I for one hope it returns to the West End next year.

Agree with most of the obvious Pro's here.
I wonder if being in shepherds bush rather than leicester square impact the movies available. Do movie companies prefer to be associated with Leicster Square as thats where all th emajor premiers are

Apart from that i liked the venue, the social as much better...we took over the place.

I'm another convert who was unconvinced to start with - I had lunch out on the green and enjoyed the sunshine with the locals, having a triangle of Vue, Wetherspoons and Chinese buffet has been great (not to mention the Morrisons and fab coffee shop downstairs) and bar a lengthy trek back on the Thursday night when I should have just got a cab, the travel didn't actually take me that much longer than usual in the end. I've saved a fortune on food and drink too - I went to the buffet and Roosters Piri Piri a couple of times each and the food in the Wetherspoon's looked OK from what I could see.

I liked the screens a lot better, the seats were comfortable and a decent size (especially the smart VIP ones in the Discovery screens I got to sit in a few times), I could always see because the rakes were perfect and I didn't have a problem with the toilets although the Morrisons ones were a cut above - when I nipped down on one day they were playing Screamin' Jay Hawkins outside; also exemplary hand dryers which were powerful enough to make a dent in your flesh, which is pretty good. I agree that the screens should have been better marked and the corridor got a bit congested at times, but it wasn't unexpected when the place is new to everybody and no-one knows where anything is. The staff were great too.

It was more relaxing overall since we had the place to ourselves and nothing was a struggle, and I suspect that's why I also found that I had more chats with other FrightFesters than I ever have before. As regards getting back after Carnival, I was coming from Shepherds Bush Market which is five minutes walk away and it was very peaceful - anybody wanting to get to Holborn and didn't mind it taking a bit longer could have jumped off at Kings Cross and got on the Piccadilly Line.

Is it possible to compare individual ticket sales between the two venues.
Leicester Square gets the passing traffic that Shepherds Bush doesn't. I only found Frightfest, (and a new love for the horror genre) after walking past the Empire and picking up a program about 4 years ago.

Other than that, and the lack of the Pheonix Club I can't think of any negatives to the new location and I hope FrightFest stays in Shepherds Bush.
Having takeover of such a comfortable cinema, with a huge selection of nearby food and beer holes worked very well and the staff were excellent.

To the chap living in South London, are there no buses?
I guess we're lucky. We live in Zone 6 SW London and were able to take one bus each way, which cost us barely anything for travel and no accommodation required.

My vote would be for returning to Leicester Square. Even though I agree the facilities are excellent, the location is not good. Living in east London it is a long trek to W12 and I had to skip all the late films because the night bus would have a real mission (had the full night tube including jubilee line been running it would have been better). At least with a central location it should be easy to get to for anyone who lives either side of london.

I also think SheBu is a bit of a dodgy area which was made much worse with the overflow of people from the carnival (anyone see the ambulances outside by the bus stop one day). The journey home on the tube during carnival days in the evening was not particularly pleasant.

Frank Rizzo wrote: Living in east London it is a long trek to W12 and I had to skip all the late films because the night bus would have a real mission (had the full night tube including jubilee line been running it would have been better).

Try living in Cambridge

Personally, I found the area ok. We drove in and it was quicker than our usual mission of train/tube from previous years, plus we parked basically across the road in the Westfield so we had the convenience of being able to jump straight in the car on the last day rather than planning what we might/might not need to miss.

As a non-Londoner, the area we stayed overnight was also ok from what I could see - some random B&B up near some shops/cafes about a 15 minute walk up Holland Park Ave. It was by no means luxury, but it was a much cheaper overnight option than something within 15 mins walk of Leicester Square would have been.

The only problem with leaving the Square, of course, is (as someone said on another thread) the possibility that some studios / distributors may look down on a different area as a less prestigious and more unattractive option for screening their movies, compared to Leicester Square.

If I go into my local town centre on a weekend night I'm guaranteed to see at least a couple of sets of ambulances and police cars pulled up and I never felt uncomfortable or unsafe for a second in Shepherds Bush. God, maybe I live in a shithole

By next year the Jubilee line will be on the night tube all being well (and I'll welcome it too as I work in Waterloo when I'm in London) so it's only really the Thursday. If we're back again next year I'll be trying to stay locally, so I'm hoping that a few people post some hotel feedback since it's a new area for a lot of us - maybe consider a cheap room just for the Thursday night?

FranksWildYears wrote:I'm hoping that a few people post some hotel feedback since it's a new area for a lot of us - maybe consider a cheap room just for the Thursday night?

Ok! Well this is probably the bargain basement of recommendations, but our hotel overnight on Sat was the Notting Hill Guest House, which proudly displayed its 2 star status and smelt a bit like a care home in the lobby area

But.... it was only a short walk up the road, it was £80 (cheapest Frightfest night I've ever had!), plus the owners were really thoughtful and made sure we had everything we needed...AND breakfast (of some cereal, toast, and a sausage/bacon/egg with fresh juice) was included and brought up to our room at a time we got to request.

It was not luxurious, don't get me wrong! It was a very in-need-of-a-total-overhaul hotel, with the bathroom out in the hallway (but private to us, accessed with a key) and basic decor. But it did for the night

I did wonder about the longevity of the Vue in West 12, given the proximity of the Westfield Vue - it seems odd that two cinemas owned by the same chain are so close together outside of somewhere like Leicester Square and I would be concerned about the sustainability of the status quo.

There are pros and cons of going back to Leicester Square or staying in Shepherd's Bush as already pointed out, but the latter did feel rougher and the facilities in the area from my point of view weren't quite so good - appreciate we had Westfield as an option but it always seemed a bit far for most breaks between films.

MrsBBC wrote:To the chap living in South London, are there no buses?
I guess we're lucky. We live in Zone 6 SW London and were able to take one bus each way, which cost us barely anything for travel and no accommodation required.

There are 24-hour buses, yeah - 148 and 53/453 back to Peckham - but given the kind of time I'd be travelling back each night, it would be a real trek, probably around 2 hours door to door, based on my journey time to get there on the Thursday. The route the 148 takes, via Marble Arch and Hyde Park Corner, is gonna see a lot of gridlock at night. When it was in Leicester Square, I used to drive there and a bunch of us clubbed together for parking at Q Park, which is very handy and relatively reasonable. Journey time then was about half an hour. This is only gonna be an issue for Londoners who live a long way from Shepherd's Bush - if you're SW, it's not so bad, but SE is a pain. Staying in a hotel near the venue was really the only option for me.

I'm also honestly surprised people think the locale was OK - as a Londoner, I can think of rougher areas, but it's still pretty shabby. Goldhawk Road side of Shepherd's Bush is nicer, but that stretch where the Vue is by the green is a bit of a no man's land - kinda reminds me of Ballard's Concrete Island! The facilities are quite poor IMO and the streets are dirty, even compared to Southwark borough, where I live.

Shepard's Bush is an ugly place and I really dislike big shopping malls and chains - but having all the screens allocated to the festival is a massive plus. Quality of food offered is below average. Places like the soulless Wetherspoons is like the pound shop or McDonald's for beer.To top it off your journey home is ruined by the Carneval scum (I really wished that the chunky pissed girl on the Overground that was falling on everyone's lap on Sunday eve would break her neck).
Leicester Square is a tourist Zombie park which every Londoner avoids as they do with Oxford St. However it provides better access to restaurants and bars, also due to other connected neighbourhoods (..and from a selfish point of view its only a 25min bus ride home as opposed to 1 hour overground). Even the square is pain especially with all the annoying street performers and tourists conjesting the streets, the history of the cinemas there have a certain flair. Maybe there is a third location somewhere (Picturehouse cinemas)?
Re-reading this I sound a bit like a snob, but that is ok