Purchasing a ticket to this year's Philadelphia Film Festival will get you more than just a seat at a movie.
Fifteen University City dining and retail establishments are offering a 20-percent discount on all purchases with a ticket stub from the festival.
Campus establishments offering discounts include Bucks County Coffee Co., Izzy and Zoe's, Ben & Jerry's and the Gap.
In addition, the Institute of Contemporary Art, University City Arts League and the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology are offering 20 percent off annual memberships with festival ticket stubs.
The promotion was organized by the University City District, an organization that works to improve the area, and Penn.
UCD spokeswoman Lori Brennan said the promotion aims to take advantage of the presence of a predicted 60,000 festival patrons by establishing University City as a visitor destination.
"While the [festival-goers] are here, we don't just want them to go to a movie and go home," Brennan said. "We want them to get out and experience University City."
Taylor Berkowitz, the marketing manager for Penn's Business Services who represented Penn in the promotion, said that "all of the businesses benefit from the film festival being here," adding that she expects it to draw more students to the festival as well.
But employees at the Gap, Ben and Jerry's, Izzy and Zoe's, Auntie Anne's and World Cafe Live all reported that no customer had yet used the ticket-stub discounts.
Festival-goer Nadia Elkaggi, who purchased tickets for Low Profile at the Bridge: Cinema de Luxe this weekend, did not know of the promotion.
"I hadn't heard about it before" Elkaggi said, adding that "it's pretty cool; I'll keep my ticket stub."
The promotion ends April 11.
- Vince Levy
