The city of London has announced they’re getting ready for another summer of outdoor movie nights.
The 2023 schedule for times, movies, and locations has been released for the free events, which are hosted by residents and neighbourhood-based groups, providing an opportunity for neighbours to connect.
“It is an awesome, free, family-focused way to get out in the city and see a movie,” says Vanessa Kinsley, Supervisor for Neighbourhood Development & Support with the city of London.
“There’s a chance to get to know your neighbours and to enjoy the outside beautiful weather London has in the summer and to get to know your parks a little better as well.”
With these movie nights having been running for a few years now, more and more people across the city have been able to attend these events. This has only been elevated further since the pandemic began to wind down.
“It’s been excellent, especially last year following COVID,” says Kinsley.
“I think that people were so excited to get out for all the movie nights and I would say, at a minimum, we usually have a hundred people attend, but we can definitely get up to 300 depending on the location.”
Movies in this year’s run include plenty of family favourites from Back to the Future, Shrek 2, The Sandlot, Puss in boots, and more.
(Credit: NeighbourGood Movie Nights) An outdoor movie night showing at Labatt Park, one of the more popular locations for the events.
With the growing popularity of these events, London has been able to make steady improvements and changes each year, with this year being no different as well.
“We also were able to partner with the London Arts Council this year, which is really cool because they have a program where they’re able to send out local artists to the movie nights and we will have local artists at many of the movie nights performing ahead of the movies as well.”
All of this being said, these events take plenty of planning, with there being consistent preparations being made throughout the year and in between seasons. Communications with neighbourhoods specifically to organise the locations of these events begin as early February.
“We book all the parks, we make sure all of our staff are trained, and all the equipment is up to date and ready to go, so there is a lot going on in the background to make sure that we run a successful program for the season for Londoners.”
When it comes to picking the actual movies, Kinsley explains that while the city goes through and vets the movies to make sure they’re safe for families, much of the actual selection process comes from the neighbourhoods directly.
“That is all resident chosen, so through the application process residents get to pick their top three movies and we do our best to accommodate their first choice, but of course we want to make sure that they are rated G or PG and are family friendly and that we’re able to show to the public.”
The outdoor movie nights are set to get up and running on June 16 with movies running at Cedar Hollow Park as well as Doidge Park with Cedar Hollow showing Minions: The Rise of Gru and Doidge running The Bad Guys to kick off the year.
While these events are designed around a community focus, Kinsely went on to talk about travelling around the city to watch specific movies can be enjoyable as well.
“Even though they’re definitely neighbourhood focused and we promote to the local neighbourhoods, people can go to any single one they want, so if people want to pick and choose which movies they want to see and travel around the city then that is definitely an option.”
More information on movies, locations, and times can be found through the neighbourhood programs and funding page on the city of London website at www.london.ca/living-london/community-services.
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