By Jordan Camp
June 30 2020, 16.00
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1950s America is coming south London in a series of drive-in cinema nights offering entertainment industry workers an opportunity to get back to work.
@TheDriveIn will be in the capital from July 6 – 12 showing a variety of films from 80s favourites Back to the Future and Grease to more recent hits Joker and A Star is Born.
As well as providing a popular film for the entire family to enjoy the night will feature a range of entertainment throughout the evening including bingo, carpool karaoke and stand-up comedy.
Event director Alan Croston said: “The events industry as a whole from DJs to club comedians have been affected by this so badly and what we tried to do was offer as many opportunities to get people back to work as we can across the events.
“We’re only touring as a very small crew of our staff and what we’re trying to do is recruit as many people locally as we can in each city to offer more opportunities to go back to work.
“To offer job opportunities to anyone on furlough or those who are struggling financially and things like that, we’re trying to offer them the best we can really.”
The tour was set up by Mainstage Festivals, known for live music events across Europe such as Snowboxx in the French Alps and they were keen to provide summer entertainment for the entire family as lockdown measures continue to be lifted.
Mr Croston said: “Just by doing travel events and festivals we’re probably going to be the last people going back to any kind of normality, getting our events back in place and doing our usual thing.
“We started toying around with ideas and we thought the drive-in seemed like such a good fit because it works so well with social distancing measures.
“It offers a really safe and comfortable way for people to experience events and to be out and about without having to really be out of their comfort zone.
Mr Croston grew up in Cape Town, South Africa until the age of 18 when he moved to London and he has been working in the events industry ever since.
He said: “I personally went to drive-ins as a kid when I was growing up and I always used to love them.
“Trying to bring that classic American feeling of the 50s drive-in and the fact that it was an existing model so we didn’t have to reshape or completely redo it to make it work.
“I think the whole experience of getting the food there, going with my family and all sitting down, blanket in the car watching a really great film brought back memories for me and once we came up with the idea we were really excited about it and it’s something that felt right.”
The location in south London is still to be confirmed but details of the event including links to ticket sales can be found on their website www.atthedrive.in.
