Tides presents 14 family-friendly flicks for 2017 Beach Movie Series
By Lorne Chambers | Editor
Every year Tides Folly Beach offers one of the best family-friendly events on Folly Beach with its Beach Movie Series, held every Wednesday between the end of May until the end of August.
The event is free and open to the public, which are invited to bring beach chairs, blankets, popcorn, and non-alcoholic beverages to the beach in front of the hotel. Tides endures the expense of the equipment, the rights to play the movie, as well as a committed team to set up and break down each movie night. But these events are not about making money, explains Matthew Zengerle, general manager of Tides Folly Beach.
“We certainly do not make any revenue off it. In our eyes, it is a great way for us to give back to the community of Folly Beach,” says Zengerle. “Folly is so special to us that we want to provide a unique and unforgettable experience to both Folly’s visitors and residents.”
According to Zengerle, to secure rights to the films they show Tides works with a few cinematic companies. “It is not very hard to secure the rights, just have to make sure the scheduling works out for both the company, and our schedule during the summer,” he says.
In choosing movies, Zengerle says they go off both prior success, and also new movies. “Typically I wait to make the movie schedule until the Oscars, as I typically pick a few that have been either nominated or have won for the previous year,” he says. “We also look at the school schedule for families with children and try to put as many family movies as we can in that period.”
Movies such as Frozen, and Finding Nemo or Dory always have a great draw, says Zengerle. “We close every season with a feature of Jaws, because, how cool is that to watch on the beach,” he says.
All Zengerle asks is that movie goers make sure they pick up after themselves after enjoying the movie. “We firmly believe that if you were able to bring it out to the beach, you are able to take it off the beach,” he says. “We do provide extra trash bins, but we ask that you keep our lovely beach clean and beautiful. Pack it in, pack it out!”
