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Auburn, Washington: Auburn’s Summer Sounds & Cinema

By Open Air Cinema on September 11, 2010 in Outdoor Movie Events, Outdoor Movie Photo Contest

Outdoor Movies in Auburn, Washington

Auburn’s Summer Sounds & Cinema started in the summer of 2004. The popular outdoor concert and movie series is now a three-week series held throughout the month of August and provided by the City of Auburn. In addition to the lively music and the movie under the stars, event coordinators plan exciting activities to keep viewers entertained, engaged and coming back.

With creative programming ideas – such as bee mobile crafts in conjunction with the Bee Movie, partnering with the Pacific Northwest Delorean Club when showing Back to the Future and a giant meatball slingshot competition at this year’s screening of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – the audience thrives on the excitement. With on-site food concessions, an opportunity for free Child ID kits, inflatable rides and more, Auburn’s Summer Sounds & Cinema is a blockbuster hit that attracts an audience of over 3,000 per summer.

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Lacey, Washington: Lacey Parks & Recreation Host Outdoor Movie Nights

By Open Air Cinema on September 8, 2010 in Outdoor Movie Events, Outdoor Movie Photo Contest

Outdoor Movie Fun in Lacey, Washington

Lacey Parks & Recreation does movie nights in our park Saturday nights in the summer and have been so doing since 1997. Lacey, Washington is located just north of Olympia, the state capital and we have about 36,000 in population. Our movie nights are great family events each summer with attendance ranging from 200-over 1000 per night. It is a part of our summer entertainment series that also includes Tuesday evening Children’s Entertainment (Jugglers, magicians, etc) and Wednesday noon music concerts.

We have provided some entertainment prior to the movies like hosting the Lacey Idol contest and also doing Lacey Game Show nights to include the audience in interactive participation and bring them out prior to the movie at dusk. For 2010 we will precede the movies with music concerts by local and regional bands. We wrap up the season with either a double feature or All nighter showing movies that fit a theme, like Super Heroes (Batman, Superman, Spiderman), Harry Potter or the Twilight movies.

The Movie nights are sponsored and presented by the Lacey Parks & Recreation Department and supported by various community sponsors. At this time we use a retractable screen and our own projector & speaker system but are looking to add movies to another one of our parks without the retractable screen, so we would love to win a new screen! Photos above include one of our regular movie nights as well as a 3D movie night.

Another fun thing we did was to add a holiday movie on the big screen to our annual Christmas Tree lighting for the families to watch while they waited to see Santa. This fall we plan to add a scary movie night around Halloween with scary surprises lurking in the park.

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DeLorean Club Shows up at Outdoor Screening of Back to the Future

By Open Air Cinema on July 17, 2010 in Outdoor Movie Events

Marty McFly: Wait a minute, Doc. Ah… Are you telling me that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean?

Dr. Emmett Brown: The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?

Likewise, if you’re going to an outdoor movie viewing of Back to the Future, why not do with a bit of style? At least that’s how the Pacific North West DeLorean Club felt when they drove their valuable collector’s cars to Auburn’s special Summer Sounds & Comcast Cinema event.

There were around 300 people that came out on a rainy night to enjoy a blast from the past on the outdoor movie screen. But the attendees that got the most attention where the ones stepping out of their iconic gull-wing doors. Some of the DeLorean Club even were sporting poodle skirts for the occasion. When rain threatened the evening the devout movie goers simply covered their collector’s items with canopies.

“Not one person got up and left,” reports Special Events Coordinator Kristy Pachciarz. “I was really surprised.”

Pachciarz spends a lot of time planning out the three week outdoor movie festival, specifically on how to make interactive activities or themes to go along with the movies shown.

“When we showed Bee Movie it was a lot of fun, there were children running around with bee face paint on.”

In addition to bee face paint the events also included making bee mobiles, bee hives and having inflatable rides and a live band. The film festivals usually take place in a local park that overlooks Mt. Rainier.

“It’s a fairly unique event, not in the sense that we’re the only city that is doing it, but in the sense that we’re in a smaller community. It’s a chance for people in the community to go to a local park, have a picnic, and let their kids run around.

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