An owner of a Saskatchewan drive-in movie theatre says the decision about when to open isn’t an easy one.
Last week, the provincial government updated its ReoOpen Saskatchewan plan to lift restrictions on businesses put forth as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The changes included bumping drive-in theatres up from Phase 4 to Phase 1, which started May 4.
Clearwater Drive-In owner Denise Kelk said the go-ahead to open for the season on May 15 caught her by surprise.
“It’s a good thing, but we certainly won’t be in a position to open for next weekend, going under the previous information of being in Phase 4. Nobody knew when that was going to be and therefore can’t really prepare or plan for much at all,” she said.
The drive-in theatre northeast of Kyle, Sask., typically runs seasonally from the May long weekend through the Labour Day weekend.
Kelk said their decision is also affected by the COVID-19 guidelines imposed by the government, which includes separating vehicles by a minimum of five metres or 16.4 feet.
“We can fit 150 cars in comfortably,” she said.
“By the time we’re ready to open in June, perhaps the food services may have changed somewhat. For example, in phase three is when the restaurants are slated to start to have dine-in. So if that happens… then that may make it a little bit easier for us, concession-wise.”
The couple has operated Clearwater Drive-In since July 1988 but this isn’t the first year they’ve experienced a setback.
“There was one other year when we tried to convert to digital in 2013, we had a bit of a setback with trying to reface our screen and the difficulties that we had with that. And that delayed our season-opening by a few weeks,” Kelk said.
“But this situation is… completely off the map. It’s going to be challenging. I guess once we get going to see how we’re going to adjust to things and go from there.”
“We’re just going into an unknown situation. So hopefully everything will work out for us when we open.”
Twilite Drive-in Theatre, at Wolseley, Sask., and Prairie Dog Drive-In, north of Carlyle, will start with screenings of Trolls World Tour on May 15, according to Facebook pages.
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