Sparkle review – the event

OK so now that we are done with the movie I need to take a brief minute to talk about the event. It was an advance screening of the movie Sparkle and as you know as a Whitney fan I wasn’t going to miss that. I had to go to Boudoirlashes before hand to get my henna and champers on but rushed east to see Whitney in her final curtain call.

It was at Genesis Cinema but I overlooked the trek to the east side because the cinema itself is actually quite nice. What I didn’t like was the organisation of the event. I won’t name and shame but there were issues from the start.

Initially when I tried to book there were no tickets available as it was too far in advance. So Facebook was saying you could get your tickets but the cinema weren’t ready yet. This was sorted within 24 hours but then the pricing wasn’t the same. Again this was sorted within 24 hours so I still had faith that this event would be a normal night out at the cinema.

We got there on time and ….there were 2 metres of red carpet. Unbeknownst to many of the guests this was a red carpet event? Some of my group who had paid were given free press passes which kind of pissed them off as they had paid and could have just turned up and taken their chances. It wasn’t clear what was going on. There was an area for interviews with celebrities none of whom I recognised. I was told that 1 was from Eastenders and some of the women looked ready to faint. I haven’t seen Eastenders since Little Den and Sharon’s first breakup. Has much happened since 2001? Oh Tameka was there. I recognised her. And the guy from ACLT. I almost didn’t recognise him without the donation bucket.

All the other celebs were contestants from Britain’s Got Talent, X factor and The Voice. Again shows I don’t watch. Most were worried that they weren’t dressed glamorously enough but to be fair the majority of the organisers hadn’t made much of an effort so we didn’t look out of place.

I’m a bit of a stickler for timekeeping especially when one isn’t in zone 1 and yet despite the time on the event saying 8 it was nearly 9 before the film finally started. I was tired. An hour of waiting around not really being told what was going on. I was tempted to take their feedback form and tell them what I thought but if you don’t have anything nice to say….

After the movie it was clear that they were going to have a celebrity panel to discuss the movie. I’m not sure how the whole panel discussion went as I had to leave of boredom after 15 minutes. I don’t care who was on that stage. None of them had the X factor, the Voice , the ability to make a discussion on whether talent is enough to make it in the industry worthy of staying. Let me see if I remember who was on the panel…..bear with me….no it’s gone. Oh wait! There was a guy with really big hair, a guy called John, another one called Jazz and a woman who had worked with P Diddy.

I guess the key to event management is to tell people what to expect. I would have liked to dress up. I could also have spent an hour longer at the boudoir lashes launch party which was a well organised event.

That said, I enjoyed the movie. But the event failed to sparkle.

©Chelsea Black