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The day a film festival in Portland made me rethink how I book tickets
Last year I went to the Portland International Film Festival and bought tickets for 5 movies all at once without checking the schedule closely. Three of them ended up overlapping on the same day with only 20 minutes between end and start times at venues half a mile apart. I missed the first 10 minutes of two films because of that mistake. Now I always map out travel time between locations before I buy any ticket for a multi-venue event. Has anyone else gotten burned by rushing through a purchase like that?
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abby_henderson23d agoMost Upvoted
Oh man that totally stinks! I actually read an article a few months back about how film fest organizers in places like Toronto and Austin are starting to add "travel time calculators" right into their ticket booking systems after getting tons of complaints like yours. Seems like a no brainer but I guess it took people getting burned for them to finally do something about it. I always check Google Maps walking distance before I commit to anything now, learned that lesson the hard way at a small music fest where I had to sprint between stages in the rain. The worst part is missing the beginning of a movie, you lose all the setup and then spend the rest of the film trying to catch up. Hopefully more festivals will follow Portland's lead and build in those buffer times so people dont have to rush around like crazy.
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Wait, are we really blaming the festival for not accounting for 20 minutes of walking time? I mean, you bought five movies all at once without checking how far apart the venues were. That's not really on them, is it? Most people know to leave a gap between showtimes, especially in a city where theaters can be spread out. I get that it's annoying to miss the first bit of a film, but part of the fun of a fest is planning your schedule and figuring out what you can realistically see.
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