No one knows when movie theaters and other cultural institutions may be allowed to reopen—and even when they do, it's unclear just how many people will feel comfortable going to places where large groups of people will be gathered. In the meantime, people are starting to embrace alternative forms of entertainment, like the Queens diner that started showing drive-in movies in its parking lot. And on a larger scale, Yankee Stadium may play host to a giant drive-in festival this summer.
MASC Hospitality Group, the company that helps run the Bronx Night Market and the Bronx Beer Festival, announced recently that they are hoping to bring their Uptown Drive-In festival to the Yankee Stadium parking lot in July. "It's a food festival meets cultural event meets classic drive-in," co-owner Marco Shalma told CNN. "We wanted to create a space where people can eat, watch films or comedians, play bingo and even have date nights in a way that is safe."
In addition to drive-in movies on giant screens, they want to have live music concerts, karaoke nights, carside dinner service from street vendors, interactive games and giveaways, and theme nights. They plan on installing a lifted stage with large screens in Yankee Stadium's largest parking lot, where people can perform. Sound will be streamed from a PA system into people's cars.
Cars will be asked to park 10 feet away from each other to maintain social distancing, and only 200 cars will be allowed to register for each event. Tickets will be charged per vehicle and will be all-inclusive. No information has been released yet about how much tickets will be, or when they will begin selling them, but you can sign up for their newsletter here.
Initially, the plan was to stage the events every weekend in July, but due to the a high demand already, they're considering expanding it to every night that month, and possibly into August as well.
There are two big question marks before anything is finalized: if there's a change in New York's reopening plans, Shalma told USA Today that would be "the only thing that would stop this from happening." There's also a small chance baseball might be back in July and the Yankees would be playing there, though they could also play in Tampa, where their spring training happens. And even if the Yankees did take their field again this year, they would be playing to a fan-less stadium, which would leave the parking lot free.
We've reached out to MASC for more information about the event, and also to ask what they plan to do about toilets. As the Washington Post reported recently, public restrooms will be a big barrier in reopening.
