7 Details That Make a Small Film Festival Feel Welcoming

It’s forty minutes before the first screening. A filmmaker who drove four hours is standing in your lobby holding her phone, unsure which door leads to Screen 2. Behind her, a couple is asking a volunteer where to collect passes, and the volunteer started an hour ago.

Nobody will remember this as a programming problem. They’ll remember whether the festival felt like it was expecting them. A small event can’t match a big one on budget, but it can win on welcome. These seven details are where that’s decided.

Detail #1 – Clear Arrival Information

Arrival information should answer a guest’s questions before they have to ask, starting the week before. Send one email to every ticket holder and filmmaker with everything they need to get through the door.

Include these in the message and on your website:

• The venue address and the entrance to use
• Parking, transit and drop-off details
• Door times and the first screening time
• Where to collect passes and tickets
• A phone number that someone will answer

At the venue, put a sign at every decision point: the street, the parking lot, the main door and each corridor junction. Walk the route as a stranger would, starting from the parking lot, and add a sign wherever you hesitate.

Detail #2 – Accessible Routes

Accessible routes need checking in person, because a venue’s website can be out of date. Walk or roll every route a guest will use, from arrival to seat to restroom.

Start outside. Under the ADA, accessible parking spaces must be located on the shortest accessible route to the accessible entrance. Find those spaces and that entrance, and make sure your signs point to them.

Inside, check for steps, heavy doors, narrow aisles and cables across walkways. Find out where wheelchair seating is in each screening room and whether companions can sit alongside. Publish what you find, including the limits. A guest can plan around a venue’s shortcomings when they know about them in advance.

Detail #3 – A Quick, Friendly Check-In

Check-in is the first conversation a guest has with your festival, so make it short and warm. A long line at the pass desk sets the mood for the whole day.

Put your most welcoming people on the desk, and brief them to offer the next step: “Screen 1 is through those doors, and the Q&A starts right after.”

Detail #4 – Program Displays People Can Read

Program displays should tell a guest what’s on now, what’s next and where, from across the lobby. Printed programs are useful in the hand, but they can’t keep up when a screening moves.

Post the day’s schedule at the entrance and outside every screening room. Use large type, list start times and running times, and mark which screenings have a Q&A.

A tablet at the entrance can show a live schedule and change the moment something does. Mounted on something like a freestanding tablet floor stand in the VidaBox range, which is made to fit different tablet models, it sits at reading height where a poster would go. Check the fit for the tablet you already own before you order any stand, and plan where the power cable will run.

Keep the screen simple: now showing, up next and a map. Assign one person to update it, and give them the authority to do it without asking.

Detail #5 – Screenings Everyone Can Follow

A screening is welcoming when everyone in the room can follow the film and the conversation after it. Plan for that when you request screening copies.

Captions

Ask every filmmaker for a captioned version. ADA.gov lists open captioning, closed captioning and assistive listening systems among the aids and services used to communicate with people who have communication disabilities. Mark captioned screenings clearly in the program.

Q&A Sessions

Use a microphone for every question, and have the moderator repeat it. Reserve seats near the front for anyone who needs to lip-read or see an interpreter.

A Quiet Space

Set aside a room or a corner away from the lobby where a guest can take a break from the noise. Put it on the map.