I’m not afraid of failure even though my theatre business banks on the past

Those of us of a certain age will remember spending evenings seated on the bonnet of a car, watching a movie running off a reel and listening to it on portable radios. This was the drive-in theatre.

With the dawn of cinemas, affordable DVDs and online streaming, this quaint way of spending an evening on the weekends slowly died out.

But the memory of watching movies with family and friends under the Kenyan night sky stayed with Chumba Kipsanai, who was lucky enough to experience drive-ins with her mother and siblings as a child.

The beginning

It is the desire to recreate these moments that prompted 21-year-old Chumba to start her company, Dark Green.

Dark Green is an events company that specialises in organising and hosting movie and live music nights at different outdoor venues.

“All the old drive-ins closed. I always thought it was such a shame that my generation would not get to experience them, so I started thinking of how to recreate the same idea but in an affordable way.”

Chumba’s idea was to screen a movie off a projector to a large group of people at a suitable outdoor venue.

“I knew my idea for the movies would work, but then it needed to be unique. I think drive-ins had a problem meeting their overheads because they showed movies that people could easily access elsewhere,” Chumba tells Hustle.

“When I was working on the concept of Dark Green, I decided we would only show classical films, and films that most of my age-group might not even know exist. I believed this would give it a distinctive touch.”

Chumba admits that her challenge was finding classical movies since she had poor knowledge of them. Her solution was to enlist her older relatives and friends to make suggestions.

She would then take a list, usually of 10 movies, and showcase them to her age-mates who would vote for a winning film to screen.

The first movie Chumba screened was The Count of Monte Christo, a 2002 film based off a book first published in 1884.

The March 2016 event went down well with her audience of predominantly 18-24-year-olds. However, Chumba was not convinced that the idea of screening a movie was enough to draw in a substantial crowd. So she incorporated live music performances into her events.

“Of course affording established musicians is hard, but there are so many up and coming talents who are excited at the prospect of playing to a group of young people. These are the ones I approached.”

The total cost needed for her first event was about Sh150,000, an amount Chumba did not have at the time. She wrote up proposals that she presented to potential sponsors.

Getting funding

Though she did not get any monetary sponsorship, she managed to get a free venue, free marketing in terms of posters and fliers, and free performances from a few artistes.

“I couldn’t believe it when we actually pulled the first gig off. But we ran at a loss of about Sh50,000. I had to borrow cash from my dad to settle bills with suppliers. Our deal was that I pay him back after a set amount of time or he gets a stake in the company.”

Despite the setback, Chumba was not discouraged. The people who had attended the first screening were so excited about it that they spread the word to their friends.

She decided to hold a second event. Having learned from her mistakes, Dark Green broke even, selling 130 tickets at a cost of Sh1,000 each.

“A typical event will cost about Sh200,000 to host, but we always try to get sponsors to bring the cost down.”

Dark Green was officially registered in January this year after Chumba realised she had a viable idea in her hands.

Her last event brought in Sh230,000, leaving her a clear profit of Sh60,000. She has since managed to pay her father back the money he loaned her after her first event.

Chumba knows it’s early days yet for her company, but she plans to stay ahead of the game by using her genuine love for movies, music, people and the outdoors to propel her forward.

“Sometimes I get scared that someone bigger with more resources will come up and use the same ideas I have and blow me out of the water. But then, Dark Green keeps evolving and at the end of the day, it’s not even about the money, it’s about building a culture of alternate, good and honest fun.”

Something memorable

Chumba’s greatest dream is to one day host a cultural and music event similar to Coachella, which takes place in the US state of California and is one of the world’s biggest music and arts festivals.

“The secret with events is to have such a great and appealing idea that sponsors are sure people will come. Once they know they can get the numbers, they will give money or payments in kind,” Chumba says.

“For Dark Green to succeed, we have to consistently give people something memorable and something different.”

Her greatest achievement is having people aged 18 to 40 attending and enjoying her events. Her hope is to keep Dark Green numbers growing.