The popcorn’s popping and the people are heading for their seats. Out here under the fading evening light, those seats actually are personal lawn chairs and blankets, carried in with picnic baskets and pizza boxes. The 150 folks in the audience settle in for the showing of another feature film at Rockefeller Gardens.
It’s called Movies on the Halifax, an old-fashioned drive-in movie without the cars that’s become a fixture on the first Friday night of each month, weather permitting.
Salley Hobling and Verla Koonts, regulars from Ormond Beach, were the first to arrive for last Friday’s free film, “Days of Thunder.”
“These movies are so old we don’t remember them. So they are new,” Hobling said, laughing, as she relaxed in a chair anchored front and center screen on the lawn. “We try to come to watch them every month.”
Koonts added: “This is really nice being outside. And it’s free, something where families can bring all their children.”
Siobhan Daly oversees activities at the neighboring Casements and came up with the idea for the monthly movies, which started late last summer.
“This is our eighth. We’ve been averaging about 200 to 250 people. We got rained out three months in a row,” Daly said. “People come early to get their spots, with lawn chairs, blankets and sleeping bags for the kids.”
The threat of rain, a competing NASCAR race at the Speedway and the July 4th weekend might have hurt attendance a bit last Friday.
But the river view and cool summer breeze made movie-watching for those attending a special experience.
City Commissioner Troy Kent is a big fan of the city-sponsored outdoor movies, having attended several with his family.
He said he discussed with Daly last year different ways of getting people to enjoy the newly renovated Rockefeller Gardens.
“The movies were her idea. And I jumped all over it,” Kent said.
Given the bad economy, he said the movies provide a fun, family-oriented night out in a time when every dollar matters.
“What an incredible free asset,” he said.
Honey Swihart arrived early and well-prepared with her two young children, pulling a wagon filled with blankets, pillows and a bucket of chicken.
“We come almost every month,” she said, her husband joining the family moments later.
“We love that the kids get to be outside and they can run around. In a standard movie theater, we’d have to chase them around.”
Mary Connor, visiting friends from Orlando, was pleasantly surprised during a walk to discover the outdoor movie being shown in a park by the Halifax River.
“They don’t do this back home, and if they did, it wouldn’t be quite like this,” she said, as a riverboat passed at sunset underneath the Granada Bridge.
“No, not with a view like that.”
Comments are closed.