Restaurant offers, National Cinema Day, and a Market Square event brought the highest weekend footfall to Orpington since pre-covid, with Saturday 3 September seeing a 41.7% Week-on-Week increase, and Sunday's year on year figures leaping up 42.3% (Sensormatic data).
Saturday 3rd September saw the launch of Flavours of Orpington, a celebration of the town's excellent eateries. The festival brochure with exclusive offers from participating restaurants was distributed across Orpington, providing an added incentive for residents to visit their favourite restaurant, or try somewhere new.
The start of the festival period, which ran until Sunday 11 September, coincided with National Cinema Day at ODEON Orpington. Film fanatics were able to enjoy tickets from £3 for all films, across all screens, all day long, and well over 3,000 of them took up the invitation.
Movies included Idris Elba’s big-cat thriller Beast, a re-released Spiderman: No Way Home, and the return of Steven Spielberg’s 1982 family classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with the gravity defying thrills of Top Gun: Maverick proving the most popular.
Also making a return - Sunday Social was back for its fifth year as part of Flavours of Orpington.
A free community event run in partnership between Orpington 1st and Churches Together Orpington (CTO), Sunday Social saw hundreds of families come together on a buzzing Market Square.
The CTO team cooked up over 800 burgers for their free BBQ, with live music, garden games and family activities - including The Unclimbable Ladder and Velcro Axe Throwing - providing entertainment.
Orpington 1st Executive Director, Chris Travers, said: "It's been great to see the town centre so busy this weekend. As usual, the team at ODEON did a superb job in looking after guests, and our brilliant restaurants continue to deliver fantastic food and first-class service, in challenging conditions."
"We'd like to thank Churches Together Orpington for their collaboration on another great event for the town in Sunday Social, and Orpington residents for continuing to support our business community."
Photos from Sunday Social by Mikeal Hassler
