The South Shore Drive-In is moving into a permanent home.

Every weekend since July, a dedicated group of volunteers has been showing movies on the side of the Mill Village Fire Station.

Beginning Sept.12, people can now enjoy the show from the comfort of their vehicle at the drive-in’s new home at the Hank Snow museum in Liverpool.

One of the organizers, Catherine Croft, says since the province was hit so hard by the Portapique shootings and COVID-19, her goal was to bring the community together. She says the support for the drive-in has been beyond her wildest hopes.

“So many volunteers, so many people that believe in what we’re doing, it’s been phenomenal,” said Croft. “It’s been crazy to me.”

Croft says visitors to the new location will notice the screen is unlike any other drive-in. Where most are built with a wood backing, this screen takes the area’s sailing heritage to heart and is made of fabric.

“I had always said my screen was like a ginormous sail, so let’s do that. So with rigging gear and cables and lines, we’re able to rise and lower the screen for shows,” said Croft.

At around $8,000, she says the design is significantly less money than the roughly $20,000 it would cost to build a traditional wood screen. The screen can be pulled taught for a crisp picture and the flexible design provides another safety benefit.

“We can retract it for storms because around here, as you know, we can suffer massive storms and with a wooden structure, it may not survive,” said Croft.

The new location will increase the drive-in’s capacity to approximately 200 cars.

Croft says one of the group’s goals is to keep the entertainment affordable. Each carload is charged $10 admission, half of which goes towards the venue hosting the drive-in.

Croft says while the South Shore drive-in will have a permanent home at the Hank Snow museum, they still intend to bring the experience to communities throughout Queens. They have stops planned for Caledonia and Greenfield in the next two weeks.

Croft says the admission will be a little higher at $15 because of the additional expense to bring a team to a different location, but that cost will be lowered to $10 for anyone bringing a non-perishable food item for the North Queens food bank.

Croft says people can look forward to films being shown at Hank Snow each weekend until Oct. 31.

She plans to show classic horror movies for the Halloween closing night and says people should keep their eyes peeled for zombies and ghouls roaming the parking lot as well.

Croft says the drive-in will be back in action in the spring by the beginning of June and maybe sooner, if weather permits.

She is excited they’ve been able to bring the drive-in experience to a new generation.

“The grandparents are taking their grandchildren to our shows and they’re loving it,” said Croft. “It’s been nothing but positive and we’re so looking forward to getting to the Hank Snow park.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson