or: an outdoor cinema experience in Mauritius 

Saturday night saw me attend my first outdoor movie cinema in Mauritius. I’ve been fortunate enough to have gone to a few outdoor cinemas in various locations yet this one is a definite standout.

We were there to see A Star is Born which I’d seen when it first came out in Hong Kong. I was there for the company and the experience. And also because Bradley Cooper close up is still rather easy on the eye and the soundtrack is pretty awesome too especially when belted out from cinema quality speakers.

None of these is what made the experience a standout.

The location doesn’t rival that of Sydney Harbour or the Botanic Gardens either. It is a large park at the back of a shopping mall surrounded by main roads though it is set back from them so you can’t hear cars speeding along.

At this cinema, you are not allowed to bring in any food or drink as it is sold there. That is correct, this is not a bring your own picnic cinema. It is actually not a picnic cinema at all and this is the start of what made it such a different experience for me.

You buy tokens on entry to use is exchange for food and beverages. Everything is conveniently priced in 50 rupee increments since that is the value of one voucher. Two vouchers buys one large Phoenix beer. One voucher buys a medium sized bag of chicken Twistie equivalents – a crisp / chip that I can’t remember when I ate last so I bought them since the popcorn was sold in bags and clearly wasn’t hot. There should be rules against selling popcorn like this.

There wasn’t other alcohol to choose from and not a massive range of food either. This wasn’t the highlight for me.

With food and drink in hand, we approached what was the highlight. Our seating.

I have never sat in such comfort at an outdoor cinema in my life. The inflatable semi-velour type single lounges wee nothing short of luxurious. And incredibly difficult to get out from after the movie. Sitting down and placing my beer in the cup holder, I arranged my bag and chips nearby with my jumper out in case I became cold during the movie.  I opened my chips and lay back. I was ready.

If it had been a boring film, for sure I could have had a fantastic sleep on that lounge. I wanted to take it home though given the size of it, it would have been difficult to sneak out even after it had been deflated.

instead, I enjoyed the comfort of it while I could.

Then it started to spit. It gradually worked its way up to a drizzle and an occasional harder dagger of water. These daggers became more regular and just as I was wondering if it would be time to call it a night and go to a bar instead, from out of nowhere came an organizer with little bags that he was handing out to everyone. I was one of the recipients.

I opened my bag expecting to find a rain poncho. What I found instead was a rain jacket with hood and matching pants!

My second highlight.

Back to Bradley and the tunes…

 

 

* Thanks to  Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga for the title to this post.