Express & Star

Outdoor cinema atmosphere returns to RAF Cosford

After months of lockdown monotony hundreds pulled up a deckchair for a spectacular outdoor cinema.

Published
Freddie (five), Harry (three), and Jamie McMulkin from Walsall, in the Popcorn Bar inside a Hercules plane

The RAF Cosford Museum has been hosting a weekend of outdoor screenings, with classics such as Top Gun and Back to the Future, as well as children’s favourites, The Lion King and Trolls World Tour.

Showing the films on a giant LED screen meant the museum was also able to expand the number of screenings, with the LED still providing a vivid picture in the daylight at 5pm.

Husband and wife Richard and Ria Moran from Wednesbury were back for their second night in a row on Saturday, having watched the Lion King with their three daughters on Friday night. Ria, an NHS worker at New Cross, said it had been great for the family to get out and enjoy an event after “not doing much during Covid”, having herself been seconded to work in the ITU at points during the crisis.

Youngsters Isabella, nine, Elizabeth, seven, and Arianna, two and a half, were up and dancing as they awaited the start of Trolls – a film which Isabella said they had watched “11 times in a row” when they first got the DVD.

Janet Melia, 61, from Albrighton, was happily set up in her deck chair with her daughter Catherine, granddaughter Makena, and her friend Kimmi.

Catherine, 37, and also from Albrighton, said it was great to have events like it on their doorstep. She said: “We have done a few days out over the summer holiday but this is really nice in that it is local, it is out and about, there is lots of space so they can get up and dance or sing.”

The museum was also making the most of the assets at its disposal with a giant Hercules aircraft on the field converted into a dedicated popcorn bar for the evening. A converted fire engine bar selling beer, wine and spirits, a trailer serving crepes, a coffee bar and a ‘Smoke Truck’ dishing up street food.