A Knight In Salford – a brilliant comedy about Sir Lancelot time travelling to present day Salford, complete with Merlin, fairies and magical special effects. It was going to be the biggest film premiere ever to be staged in Salford…And what’s more, it was going to be for a community feature film made in the city and starring Salfordians.

The young people from the cast had raised the money for the premiere themselves and wanted to stage it at The Lowry - the most prestigious venue in Salford - with red carpets, lights and limos. This was going to be a big, big night, a celebration of the city’s incredible cinematic heritage. And then they got the potential bill. And it all went flat…

The Lowry wanted a `non-commercial rate’ of over £5000 for the hire of the Lyric Theatre plus technical costs. In other words, the arts palace, which already gobbles up millions of pounds of public money - of council tax payers’ money - wanted to charge a little non-profit-making local community group a totally unaffordable fee to use the place. Exclusion was rearing its ugly head yet again.

“At first there was this `them’ and `us’ attitude” recalls Graham Cooper of Oliver’s Youth Club “…But then The Lowry got a bit of bad press about not letting the community into the building…”

The `bad press’ was the Salford Star’s expose in issue 1 about the amount of public money The Lowry gets, how it kicked out local kids who wanted to see Lowry’s paintings and how, at the last community film premiere, the cast and guests were ushered in through a side door away from the public eye. In the immediate weeks after the feature’s publication Graham and Jacqui Carroll, Director of REELmcr, the film’s producers, went back into The Lowry to further negotiate the use of the theatre and the attitude had changed. Completely.

The hire charges for the Lyric Theatre were dropped and it was suddenly offered free of charge. Everything else, such as technical provisions, catering and staff costs was either heavily discounted by up to 65% or provided free. The total bill for over a thousand people to attend the premiere at the Lyric, with lights, red carpets, buffet, ushers etc was around £1500, under a fifth of what was previously quoted for `non-commercial’ rates.

“Basically they bent over backwards and in the end united with us over what we were trying to do, although I still think they had reservations over letting so many young people in from Salford” says Graham.

Around one thousand Salfordians turned up for the world premiere of A Knight In Salford, and saw the cast arriving in a fleet of limos, gracing the red carpet and strolling in proudly through the front entrance. For the first time the community had taken over The Lowry.

On stage at the premiere Graham, who played Larry Lancelot in the film, summed up the feeling when he said “You give the young people in our area a challenge and you know what ? They shine. We should be fighting for them all…”

And Jacqui also added in her speech “These young people have been absolutely fantastic – they deserve respect…”

Perhaps respect for the community is something that The Lowry is now learning. Certainly, the difference between the way the community was treated at the last Lowry-hosted community film premiere, Fameless, and this event impressed Chris Lysaght, the 16 year old who aired his disappointment with the arts centre in the Salford Star’s original feature.

“It’s about time that Salford people started utilising The Lowry and getting the same rates as ourselves…”
Graham Cooper, Oliver’s Youth Club

“The whole night was 100 times better than the Fameless premiere” he says “From the way the limos pulled right up to the main entrance, to the theatre itself it was all so much better.”

Indeed, everyone agreed that the biggest film premiere that Salford has ever seen was a spectacular success, and that this has to be the beginning of a new era for the iconic building.

“I don’t think there were any incidents or problems and their trust in us was repaid by our behaviour that night. Everyone had a really good time, except that the beer is really expensive...” says Graham “It’s a brilliant building, the staff were brilliant and I would say now, without a doubt, that it’s about time Salford people started utilising it and getting the same rates as ourselves.

“I don’t know if the drawbridge is down” he adds “This could just be a one off but it’s up to people to push it themselves. They’ve done it for one group and they should do it for other groups, if they really do want community ownership of The Lowry. Because on that night there definitely was community ownership.”

It’s a point echoed by Jacqui Carroll, who had held two community film premieres at The Lowry in the past which were met with total apathy from its staff.

“I don’t think they could get their head around what REELmcr was trying to achieve within communities and I don’t think they saw the importance of our work” she says “But the premiere of A Knight In Salford was absolutely fantastic, and our company, the cast and community were all treated like royalty.

“I think it’s very important that the community know this building is there for them” she adds “It was built with their money and they need to use it more. I had parents ringing me before the premiere asking for directions because they didn’t know where The Lowry was, which is a terrible indictment of the place.