HippFest, Bo’ness

Film festivals can be a major boom for town centres too. Now in its sixteenth year, Scotland’s oldest cinema – Bo’ness Hippodrome – has hosted the annual HippFest: Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema. It’s Scotland’s only silent film festival. The festival programme features films from UK and international archives, often accompanied by specially commissioned live music. It also provides school and public workshops, talks on local cinema and cultural heritage, youth engagement activities, music composition projects, and community tours and Hippfest at home, that take the festival to underserved audiences in rural areas.

Hippfest is delivered by Falkirk Council, its brochure and website also highlight opportunities for visitors and locals to enjoy Bo’Ness and the wider Falkirk area whilst attending the festival.

Meanwhile, the Hippodrome itself was the 2019 winner of Best Cinema Experience in Scotland. It screens a year-round programme of the best new, recent and vintage cinema releases plus live and encore shows from the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and the Met – not bad for a small town! The cinema originally opened in 1911, and reopened its doors in 2009 after extensive restoration work as part of the Bo’ness Townscape Heritage Initiative.

For more information, contact see the Hippfest website.