Last June, the Los Angeles Film Festival had to contend with opening-night festivities that were taking place a block away from the Staples Center, where the Los Angeles Lakers were playing in game seven of the NBA finals.
Wednesday's Tribeca Film Festival opening has to grapple with a potentially more disruptive foe: inclement weather.
The forecast calls for "isolated thunderstorms" on Wednesday in New York City – a problem that would be inconvenient for a usual red carpet and indoor screening, but far worse for Tribeca's opening-night attraction: a free outdoor screening of Cameron Crowe's documentary "The Union" at the World Financial Plaza, followed by a live performance from Elton John, whose collaboration with Leon Russell is the subject of the doc.
Wednesday morning, Tribeca announced to its patrons that the film will screen at the plaza, rain or shine, adding, "Fans are advised to watch the weather this afternoon and plan accordingly."
But while that means that moviegoers may well get soggy as they watch the film, Elton John himself will notget wet – because, said TFF, "in the event of inclement weather, [John] will not perform from the outdoor stage."
Instead, Elton will move inside – but the audience itself will have to stay in the rain, because the performance will be streamed live on the outdoor screen at the plaza.
Sounds as if it makes sense to use another option that the festival is providing: a live stream of the post-screening performance at the Tribeca (Online) Film Festival site.
On the other hand, if Elton's "Tiny Dancer" can unite a busload of tired, squabbling rock stars in Crowe's "Almost Famous," maybe it can do the same for a plaza full of wet festival-goers.
(Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)
