The city of Santa Clarita’s City Cinemas is back once again and kicked off the summer festivities with a showing of “The Wild Robot” at Bridgeport Park on Friday evening.
Families and friends gathered for the free movie screening with their blankets, food and lawn chairs.
When it began as a drive-in movie event during the COVID-19 pandemic, this event provided people a chance to get out of the house and watch a movie, especially during a time that was difficult for people, said Joel Beck, event coordinator for the city.
Then, a year later in 2021, City Cinemas moved to the local parks in Santa Clarita.
“We wanted to make it fair for most residents, especially local residents, to get to those parks. It was just because Central Park is so out of the way from like Canyon Country and stuff like that, that we wanted to make sure we’re kind of hitting all locations throughout the city,” Beck said.
Rae Cortez, came with her 3-year-old son, Tekuani, for the first time to feel the sun and have a little mother-son date at the park.
She said that since she only moved to Santa Clarita a year ago, she wanted to do something fun and found City Cinemas and was very excited to attend.
She added that having events like this in Santa Clarita creates a great sense of community.
“Community, for sure. And that’s one of the things that I really love about Santa Clarita is that it seems to be like a lot of young families that come here from all over,” Cortez said.
Matthew Mayhew came with his wife, Christine, and their two daughters, 4-year-old Eleanor and 16-month-old Margot.
Mayhew said that his family had come last year to see “Toy Story” and that it was a great opportunity to spend quality family time together.
“We like watching movies together and we thought that coming to an opportunity to bring them to the park, to run around, play, expel some energy, and then, you know, once the sun goes down, relax and, you know, hang out and watch a movie,” Mayhew said.
He added that he also enjoys the fact that the lineup always has something for everyone.
This summer’s dates and movies are as follows:
• “Inside Out 2,” 8 p.m. Friday, July 25, Central Park.
• “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, at The Centre.
• “Jaws,” 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, Canyon Country Community Center.
