Storyhouse ‘probably’ have to cancel Drive-In cinema at Chester’s Deva stadium as toilets are in Flintshire

Storyhouse is seeking new venue for it’s Halloween Drive-In cinema due to what it describes as ‘toilet-gate.’

Bosses at the Chester theatre are in a race against time to secure a new venue for its near sell-out Deva Stadium Halloween Moonlight Drive drive-in cinema because the Welsh border goes through the middle of the car park at the football stadium.

A ban on travelling to Wales from UK coronavirus came into effect last Friday 16th October.

Under the regulations people living in England’s Tier Two – ‘high’ alert level areas which include Chester and Cheshire West and Tier Three – ‘very’ high level – which includes the Liverpool City Region will be banned from travelling into Wales.

Wales will also enter a short sharp ‘fire-break’ on Friday, with restrictions tightened further for 17 days.

North Wales Police say they will enforce border restrictions for the drive-in, so the event now must move or be cancelled, according to Storyhouse.

CEO Andrew Bentley explains “We’re doing a Halloween drive-in at Deva Stadium. It turns out the border goes through the middle of the car park but the screen is mostly in Wales.

We are already having to refund our customers who live in Wales as cinema is part of their circuit breaker. However, customers who live in England are also to be banned straying into the wrong bit of the car park to watch the film and Flintshire police say they will enforce at the event.

You’d need scale a decent sized fence to get further into Wales, and you don’t leave England to get to the Stadium”

We could try to squeeze the screen into the smaller English side of the car park, but the loos are still in Wales so our customers are going to be caught short, or just caught at the border.

“There obviously was a common-sense accommodation that could have been applied however we can find the humour in these dark days and don’t want to make anyone’s life harder than it already is. We’ll probably need to cancel the event due to restrictions in Wales, which is a shame because of course drive-in is a super safe way to find enjoyment at the moment.”

All bookers for Moonlight Drive have been contacted via email to update them of the situation. If you haven’t had an email (do check your junk folder!) please let us know at [email protected].