STORYHOUSE Chester has revealed it now cannot host its Halloween Moonlight Drive-in cinema season at the home of Chester FC this Halloween - because the toilets are in Wales.

The unique geographical feature of Chester FC's Deva Stadium, which sees the ground split between England and Wales, has traditionally been a source of pub trivia, but for arguably the first time, it has led to a bizarre event cancellation.

Moonlight Drive – showing Halloween movie classics including The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Beetlejuice – was due to take place in the stadium grounds between Tuesday, October 27 and Sunday, November 1.

Storyhouse had invested in a huge new 30ft 'Airscreen' to deliver the events. The films’ audio would have been broadcasted through individual sanitised speakers placed on car dashboards.

But with Wales due to go into a national lockdown on Friday as part of efforts to control coronavirus, that means no cinema screenings.

That initially scuppered Storyhouse's plans to host its selection of spooky films on a giant screen, as technically the screen itself would be in Wales although paying punters would largely be on the English side of the border.

And despite a plan to relocate the screen and the car park so everyone was on the English side of the border, a new number one problem has arisen.

Because people would have to just cross the border to use the ground's facilities, and that North Wales Police would be enforcing the border, Storyhouse has had to bin its plans to host its drive-in season at the Deva.

It is now facing a race against time to find a new venue, but fears the worst.

CEO Andrew Bentley explained: “We’re doing a Halloween drive-in at Deva Stadium. It turns out the border goes through the middle of the car park but the screen is mostly in Wales.

"We are already having to refund our customers who live in Wales as cinema is part of their circuit breaker.

"However, customers who live in England are also to be banned from straying into the wrong bit of the car park to watch the film, and Flintshire police say they will enforce at the event.

"You’d need to scale a decent sized fence to get further into Wales, and you don’t leave England to get to the stadium.

“We could try to squeeze the screen into the smaller English side of the car park, but the loos are still in Wales so our customers are going to be caught short, or just caught at the border.

“There obviously was a common-sense accommodation that could have been applied, however we can find the humour in these dark days and don’t want to make anyone’s life harder than it already is.

"We’ll probably need to cancel the event due to restrictions in Wales, which is a shame because of course drive-in is a super safe way to find enjoyment at the moment.”

A Storyhouse spokesperson added the option of installing portaloos on the site was also explored, but the overall issue of cars crossing the border meant the venue was still not viable. 

After the initial story went out, George Hartley, headteacher of the King's School Chester on Wrexham Road - which is located and accessible wholly on the English side of the border - responded on Twitter, offering a potential alternative venue.

He wrote: "Somewhat speechless but the show must go on! You’d be welcome to come and recce King’s to see if you could fit it in our lovely car park. We have about 1200 vehicles through the site every day and it’s over half term so maybe it can be done?"

A Storyhouse spokesperson has confirmed to the Standard that Storyhouse is now exploring that venue as an option.

All bookers for Moonlight Drive have been contacted via email to update them of the situation.

Those who haven’t had an email and had booked should email ticketing@storyhouse.com.