Good news for fans of the big screen, as the Pavilion in Galashiels prepares to reopen

Along with the cinema industry worldwide, the Pavilion closed it’s doors in March due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

From its reopening, the cinema is showing a mix of classic favourites, such as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Captain Marvel, and from Wednesday, August 26 it’s start of a brand new movie season with Christopher Nolan’s hotly-anticipated Tenet.

Cinema manager Andrew Poole said: “In early March we were enjoying our strongest start to the year for a couple of years, and then due to the increasing coronavirus situation it became clear we would have to close to protect our customers’ safety.

“A week after we closed, we were mandated to close anyway.

The past few months have been the longest and hardest in our family’s 40 years in running cinemas.

But we have survived and we are ready to reopen, albeit under extraordinarily difficult conditions.

“When we reopen, we will have a range of measures in place to protect our customers including fewer performances to allow deeper cleaning of halls between shows, one-way systems at the concessions stand, perspex screens, hand sanitizer stations throughout the building, and we will be adhering to the physical distancing rules in place at that time.

“The actual distance is constantly under review by the Scottish Government. It’s currently 2m, so that is the distance we will be working to at first.

“We are able to ensure our customers are sat 2m apart in the cinema hall using our booking system. All customers are encouraged to book in advance, but tickets will be available at the cinema.

“At the time of booking, or purchasing tickets at the cinema, customers will be able to choose where to sit in the auditorium, and the system will force a number of empty seats between each household.

“The full details of our safety measures can be found on our website at www.pavilioncinema.co.uk”

Other movies set to arrive in Galashiels are The New Mutants, from Saturday, August 29, and the new film from the Kingsman franchise, The Kings Man on Wednesday, September 16.

Andrew added: “It has been a turbulent time in the release calendar and, understandably, a few distributors have been reluctant to release new multi-million-dollar films in such uncertain times.

“This has resulted in several tentpole films being moved to later in the year – or even into 2021.

“So, to fill in the gaps, we’ve selected a range of classic films to show from reopening, such as Peter Rabbit, Jumanji, The Greatest Showman and Harry Potter, as well as Disney’s Onward which had only been showing for a week before we closed.

“All of the classic films will be offered at the knock-down price of just £5.50 per ticket.”

The Pavilion has undergone some changes during the lockdown.

Andrew added: “We’ve carried out some refurbishment works including repainting, and we’ve also just completed our £75,000 audio replacement project, replacing our entire audio system including sound processors, amplifiers and speakers, upgrading to Dolby 7.1 surround sound.

“And we’ve installed the Dolby Fidelio system to improve access to film for customers who are hard of hearing or visually impaired.”