College hosts outdoor cinema event to mark 10th anniversary

16th September 2019 10:50am - Return to press releases

East Riding College hosted a special open air cinema event on Friday 6 September to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their St Mary’s Walk campus in Bridlington.  The free-to-attend community event showed a double bill of Shrek 4 and The Greatest Showman on a giant digital screen on the College’s sports field.  The event was open to students, staff, ex-students and Bridlington residents and was attended by over 300 guests, with the initial ticket release ‘selling out’ in less than 48 hours. 

To mark the anniversary of the opening of the Bridlington campus, the College’s ‘class of 2009’ were also invited as special VIPs for the evening. 

Alongside the movie double bill, there were children’s activities and food and drink vendors, including Stuart’s Fish & Chips, Rustic Rover Pizza, Dreamshakers Ice Cream and The Prosecco Cube.

Winner of the fancy dress competition was Archie McGoogan aged 1 from Bridlington who was dressed as Lord Farquaad from Shrek in a fantastic home-sewn outfit complete with hat and wig. 

Mike Welsh, Principal and Chief Executive of East Riding College said, “It was an amazing community event, I think everyone had a great time.  Princess Fiona and Shrek even made a surprise appearance and kept the children entertained!  It was a night to remember and heart-warming to see so many local residents at the College enjoying the family-friendly atmosphere.  It was a great reminder to everyone that we are a vital part of the Bridlington community. Since the campus was rebuilt in 2009 we’ve trained literally thousands of young people and adults, bringing millions of pounds worth of funding to the town.  We’ve employed hundreds of people over the years too, and it was lovely to see so many of our staff and their families enjoying the event too.”

Following its success, the College hopes to run similar events in future.

Alongside the cinema event and almost ten years to the day that the new campus opened its doors at St Mary’s Walk, artist and alumna Pam Davies returned to the college to see the installation of her sculpture ‘Anima Mundi - The Soul of the World’ at its new home at the St Mary’s Walk entrance. 

The bronze statue was originally installed at the College’s old Gallows Lane site in Beverley at the start of the millennium and has now found a new –and rather fitting – home at the College’s coastal campus to mark the 10 year anniversary of the campus opening.   

Artist Pam Davies said, “The soul is our innermost nature, the source of our caring, compassion and connection with other people and the earth.  Technical and practical skills are of vital importance but not enough without underlying soul, and connection with the soul of the world. 

In this sculpture, one of the seals underlies the other and represents physical strength and skills resting on caring and compassion.  Both seals are supported by a symbolic spiral tree which represents connection to the earth and other living beings.”