Fairfield’s drive-in movies called ‘fantastic’ success

FAIRFIELD - Fairfield Arts & Convention Center Executive Director Lindsay Bauer said she was thrilled at the attendance for this past weekend's series of drive-in movies shown at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.

The arts center planned to show an outdoor film each night of the week from Thursday through Sunday in the center's west parking lot. But within a few days after advertising the event, arts center staff realized their parking lot was not big enough to hold all the people who wanted to come, so the event was moved to the fairgrounds.

One of the nights - Friday - had to be postponed because of strong wind gusts. Bauer said she's hopeful the film can be shown later this week, although a date has not been finalized. She said the movie might be shown just outside the arts center as originally planned.

Bauer said the response on the other three nights was 'fantastic.” About 150 people per night came to see the films. Two of the movies, 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and 'The Muppet Christmas Carol,” were shown twice, once at 6 p.m. and again a couple of hours later. Bauer said the film 'It's a Wonderful Life” was shown only once on Sunday, but that was because the movie is long.

'We had such a good response,” Bauer said. 'So many people asked us when we are going to do it again, hoping we could make this a monthly thing and do it in the summer months, too.”

Bauer said the arts center is indeed planning to show outdoor films again.

'We're thinking about a drive-in movie for Valentine's Day, and we're seriously considering a regular showing at least once a month,” she said.

Patrons watched the films on a giant 33-foot inflatable screen and listened to the audio by tuning to a radio station, which they learned upon entering the fairgrounds and paying admission - a non-perishable food item per person, destined to The Lord's Cupboard. Bauer said the arts center collected between 350-400 items to deliver to the food pantry.

'That feels good,” she said.

Bauer said the experiment with broadcasting the audio over the radio worked well, too, and said it could be heard from as far away as Fairfield Hy-Vee.

'This is something we've never done before, and we were so glad to make it happen, to give people a chance to do something,” Bauer said. 'It was a good experience for all of us.”