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Space for food etc between films

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2016 8:15 am
by thatcambridgebird
Thank you guys, firstly, for this year's festival :green: I know for some it's still going on so this might be a bit early, but we only stayed until Sunday evening.

I loved the venue once we found it (we drove!), it was great to have the entire place to ourselves with a packed schedule, the aircon worked (thank god from last year!!), the Vue staff I met were all lovely and genuinely seemed interested in making sure we had a good time, and there was plenty of nearby choice for food.

On that side, though.... was it just me or had the gaps between films shrunk? I think for dinner, around 6pm or so, we only ended up with a maximum of about an hour to track somewhere down, order, eat and be back for the intro - had we stayed for Q&A's it would have been even less. I know that sounds like a massive first-world problem because an hour should be plenty of time, but when you don't know the area and the festival is your bank holiday weekend away, popping in one longer dinner time gap of around 1.5 hours would have been great. I really enjoy the time I have to chat with the other half about the films we've seen and sometimes it's nice to go and choose to eat somewhere a bit more "sit down" than just a Maccy Ds, but this year it did all feel a bit more rushed and we really only got a chance to eat at what I guess were the local fast food places (thanks to whoever recommended Roosters Peri Peri!).

So please don't take this as a bashing, boys, because I honestly think this year's festival was one of the most recent best! But for future fests if the schedule allows, one long lunch or dinner gap to wind down, get some fresh air and some proper dinner would be amazing :D Thank you!

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2016 11:04 am
by mamawaldi
On the contrary, I actually found the gaps perfect this year. Once you had fought through the crowds in Leicester Square you'd normally run out of time to find anything to eat that wasn't at tourist rip-off prices. This year the break has involved a more leisurely stroll any one of a number of ok places....

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2016 1:54 pm
by thatcambridgebird
mamawaldi wrote:On the contrary, I actually found the gaps perfect this year. Once you had fought through the crowds in Leicester Square you'd normally run out of time to find anything to eat that wasn't at tourist rip-off prices. This year the break has involved a more leisurely stroll any one of a number of ok places....
Mmm, as I say, the choice was excellent, but for some folks once pass/hotel prices are factored in, it's a proper weekend away, so for spending that kind of money one daily break long enough to eat and relax somewhere a little more than just "ok" would have been a brilliant addition to the schedule ;)

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 2:53 am
by sherbetbizarre
thatcambridgebird wrote:popping in one longer dinner time gap of around 1.5 hours would have been great.
I had 2 or 3 gaps of that length, once I'd chosen some Discovery films.

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2016 12:10 pm
by thatcambridgebird
sherbetbizarre wrote: I had 2 or 3 gaps of that length, once I'd chosen some Discovery films.
We were on day passes and didn't take advantage of a Disco film. Based on one or two truly guff films we saw on the main screens, I wish we had!

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 3:03 pm
by The Soapmaker
This has always been a bit of an issue (except for those who can live on beer and hot dogs for five days).

I can remember some years where there was barely an adequate food gap all weekend, but last year it seemed to be sorted out and (as I recall) there was at least one decent 75 to 90 minute gap every day.

This year wasn't quite so good, every day there were two or three windows of about an hour, but only a couple of times did that stretch as far as 75 minutes. Even with three main screens, it wouldn't take too much reshuffling to slightly shorten a couple of gaps to leave one of 90 minutes. But I guess the problem then is where do you leave the big gap - around lunchtime, around 6pm, even later?

There's no perfect solution.

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 3:15 pm
by ian
being fairly in command of my bodily functions and happy to subsist on sweets from morrisons i found i had plenty of time and was usually sat waiting in screens with about 25mins to go, but i did like the longer breaks last year giving us the time to wander to soho and eat better food than kfc/burgers/subway. no need this time though because nothing decent was walking distance from shepherds bush vue!

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 12:42 pm
by Diggler81
Westfield had a lot of places to eat, we managed to make it there on a few occasions but the places there were quite expensive. A longer break around 6 would be perfect. Perhaps start screenings half and hour earlier?

Re: Space for food etc between films

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:31 am
by thatcambridgebird
The Soapmaker wrote: it wouldn't take too much reshuffling to slightly shorten a couple of gaps to leave one of 90 minutes. But I guess the problem then is where do you leave the big gap - around lunchtime, around 6pm, even later?

There's no perfect solution.
Oh yeah, I completely agree. One 90 min gap at some point in the day would be great. Personally my preference would be tea time, because by that point I've normally sat in 3-4 films and there's plenty to chat about over a bit of dinner. But it's difficult to please everyone, allow for Q&As, allow for folks who might have tickets for Disco screenings and so on.

It's just a thought, though. I too remember the days of having a bit longer for some dinner which didn't come out of a cardboard container!