The FrightFest Sleepy Queue – The Visual Guide!

• 1st Jul 2012

5pm Friday 29th June was around the time the first eager FrightFesters started, what would become, an overnight queue on London’s Leicester Square. By 9am the following morning the queue stretched from the front doors of the Empire Cinema right round the corner, past and beyond the Imperial Pub. Deck chairs were out; sleeping bags had been put to good use; conversations were sparked up; books were read and despite the hours, patience never wore thin.

Welcome to the sleepy queue for the 2012 Frightfest:

FRONT OF THE LINE:  The morning queue starts here!

Lively, civilised and full of good banter. The queue is not shy about having a good mingle.

Clearly the line starts to look quite serious as it spans round the corner…

So serious in fact you can see it stretches right down the next street!

Good lord will it ever end!

Aha!  Finally there is closure… But then again, people do keep turning up!

And their destination is here! The front doors of the Empire Cinema.

They are not alone however. Festival co-founder Ian Rattray is on hand to usher them in when the doors finally open.

But he is not alone either!  The rest of the team Alan Jones, Paul McAvoy and Greg Day are all in attendance. Alan Jones made sure to talk to just about every single person that joined the queue and was even handing out food to people in the morning!

Well?… when he wasn’t getting caught eating it himself.

And yet many people came prepared for any long moments of silence with books and iPads!

There’s nothing like a celebrity cameo from Tom Six – whom we suspect was indulging in a bit of queue hopping!

Speaking of queues (like we haven’t shown you enough already!): Whilst Ian and Paul usher in the enthusiastic crowd as the box office opens, Alan Jones and Greg Day take control of the mid crowd. At last people are in the door and buying their weekend passes!

Passes in hand – FrightFesters were treated to a free movie for their efforts, screened at the Prince Charles Cinema (round the other corner). Sadly it did mean forming another queue!