Fairlee drive-in brings you back in time
When thinking of quintessential, small-town New England activities, there’s nothing quite like a drive-in movie experience to bring you back in time. On a quiet Thursday night, three friends and I covered ourselves in bug spray, hopped in a car—pillows and blankets in tow—and headed to the Fairlee drive-in theatre.
A 20-minute drive away on Lake Fairlee, the drive-in plays movies every night and shows double features every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. First built in 1950, the theater paved the way for the 12-room Fairlee motel, which was built in the ’60s.
Originally called the Hi-way 5 drive-in (because I-91 didn’t exist and route 5 was the biggest road!), new owners changed the name when they took over in 1987.
Elena Zinski ’15, whose grandparents owned the drive-in from 1987 to 2003, said that running the theater was hard work, but it still had a family business feel.
“My cousins grew up working the snack shack and the ticket booth with my grandmother,” she said. “When we would go, we’d know everyone working at the stands, so it would be weird to go back and not have my family be there.”
The drive-in, the only one of its kind in this area, was very popular in the ’90s, but business seems to have taken a hit. On our visit, the parking lot seemed vast, with around eight cars clustered in the middle of a space designed to fit 100.
“It was a really fun place to be a little kid just running around—the space was great for flying kites,” Zinski said of the big, open field that houses the screen and parking lots.
While we went in thinking that the audio plays out loud in the field, it actually plays on the radio (88.7FM, for future reference). It took a fair amount of backing up and moving forward along the bumpy parking lot to get service, but eventually we picked up some form of audio, along with a fair share of buzzing.
Zinski said that her grandparents’ role running the drive-in is not public knowledge on campus.
“My friends would go there on dates,” Zinski said. “I forget that we are so close to the area.”
Zinski said that she would stay in the motel and go to bed before the R-rated movies started.
No fear about that, because for the next two weeks, the drive-in will be playing Disney’s “Planes” (2013), “The Smurfs 2” (2013) and “Monsters University” (2013).
So the next time you’re at your FoCo dinner trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the night, consider heading to the drive-in—screening starts at sunset (8:45 p.m. these days!).
P.S. The snack shack has all the greasy goods you’ve been craving ever since the Hop closed for the term.