Huntly company Standing Ovation to put on film night for town
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HUNTLY events company Standing Ovation has set up a unique plan to cure the town's coronavirus quarantine boredom tonight.
The Lights and Production company is hosting a film night at Huntly's Cooper Park – with all attendees asked to stay in their car.
People are invited to set up in the car park for the event, which starts at 7.30pm. Organisers will sit inside the hut at the car park and project pictures out onto a large screen.
Tonight's film is Toy Story – with hundreds of people having already shown interest in attending on social media.
Standing Ovation owner Brodie Murray said: "Hopefully we can fill the car park up. We have had quite a lot of interest – we put out a poll asking which film people wanted to watch on social media and got 300 respondents, with 120 alone voting for Toy Story.
"There was lots of comments saying it was a good idea. With schools closing, it is something to keep the kids entertained and something for all the family."
Visitors are encouraged to come in their car, with a box for donations being left at the gate to the car park.
Brodie came up with the idea alongside colleagues Callum Duff and Fergus Sharp, and hopes it can become a regular event in the town.
He added: "With people being in quarantine, the events industry has taken a big hit.
"The company has lost a lot of bookings and money for the future. Our whole year has been postponed, cancelled and moved about because of the coronavirus. The events industry is struggling.
"We were thinking outside the box and came up with this crafty way of keeping everybody entertained, while maintaining social distancing.
"We are looking to make it a regular thing. We have the license to do it and it would be silly to pay money for no events.
"We will see if it is popular, get feedback and see if people want something more regular."
If the event does become more regular, and if it proves popular, it will be moved away from Cooper Park to a bigger location, Brodie added.
All proceeds from tonight will go towards the next screening – including potential for the hire of a bigger location.
Brodie added: "If feedback is good, we can maybe move to a more suitable and bigger car park.
"We know Huntly is struggling financially, especially in the current climate. We are just asking for a little donation to cover our costs and to give us a bit of money to improve."
There will be no toilet facilities available. Visitors are asked to take rubbish home and flash headlights if they need to exit the car park.
