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At this time of year, the parking lot at SaskTel Centre is packed full of vehicles for a big musical act touring through the city.
On Saturday, the parking lot was filling up for a pop-up drive-in theatre as organizers attempt to pivot business in a world where crowds aren’t allowed.
Many people in the audience for a matinee showing of Lion King on Saturday had never been to a drive-in theatre.
That was the case for Chantel Hanson and her family.
“I’ve actually never been to one,” Hanson said minutes before her first drive-in movie.
“We just thought it would be fun for the kids — a good experience.”
Being able to enjoy the day with the entire family also made a difference for Hanson after a bulk of activity and allowable business in the province’s reopening plan excludes children.
“I think it’s just everything going on right now. We’ve been so secluded in our house. It’s getting out and it’s safe for everybody,” she said.
Despite the sprawling parking lot, capacity per show is limited to 124 vehicles to comply with government health guidelines. Food and drinks are available for purchase on-site.
Cheri Hamilton, the communications manager at SaskTel Centre said seeing the reaction from moviegoers made the experience worth it during a windy and a rainy afternoon.
“Last night at the show — Dumb and Dumber — pretty much all of the crowd was in their 20s, so you know they haven’t been to a drive-in,” she said. “It was a really cool experience to see how happy they were when they were leaving.”
Kaiti Hannah hadn’t been to a drive-in theatre in years.
“It’s something to do. It gets you out of the house,” she said. “There’s not a lot that you can do these days that gets you out.”
“I’ve only been to a drive-in once in my life, so it’s the novelty I guess.”
Capturing the nostalgia of moviegoers wasn’t the original intention of getting some sort of activity back to SaskTel Centre. Hamilton said that no matter what was discussed in brainstorming sessions in recent weeks, a drive-in kept getting the best reception.
“People just kept asking us about it, we thought that we would give it a try. Then we had an opportunity to rent this screen and knew we had to do it,” Hamilton said.
Saskatoon’s last permanent drive-in, Sundown Drive-in, closed in 2009 and currently operates as a storage facility.
Saturday’s run of shows at SaskTel Centre ends with UFC 250 before picking back up on Sunday with movies slated to play at 2 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
