The family-run Twilight Drive-In theatre in Aldergrove is opening this weekend for its final season.
Each year since 2005, the drive-in runs from end of winter to November, featuring films in the twilight hours of the evening for people to watch from the comfort of their vehicles.
From Friday to Sunday, Feb. 16 to 18, “Madame Web” will be showing at 6:45 p.m., followed by “Anyone But You” at 9 p.m.
Owner and operator Jay Daulat posted on social media that the drive-in made a “last-ditch effort” to save the theatre with a lease extension by the landlord, but they were told there would still be a huge rent increase.
“They were still wanting a 2.4x rent increase. That, coupled with the exponential increase in property taxes over the last five years, has made operating the drive-in no longer viable. As such, 2024 will definitely be the last year for the drive-in,” the post reads.
Property taxes on the Aldergrove location, at 260th Street and Fraser Highway, have increased 260 per cent during the past three years – 72 per cent this year alone, Daulats said in an earlier post announcing the closure.
Upon hearing of the news last year, a customer-created petition was quickly launched in support of keeping the drive-in, and Township Mayor Eric Woodward won unanimous support from council for a review of options to keep Aldergrove’s Twilight Drive-In theatre open.
READ MORE: Aldergrove’s Twilight Drive-In announces it will close
Daulat told the Langley Advance Times that, while 2022 and 2023 shows were well attended, overall attendance hasn’t bounced back to pre-COVID numbers.
“Ultimately, it will be this season’s attendance which determines if a new location would be feasible in the future,” he said.
The theatre is encouraging fans to spread the word, so that people who haven’t experienced the drive-in yet have a chance before it closes.
“We all are very sad that future generations may not be able to have the drive-in experience, and ultimately we are disappointed we weren’t able to come to a viable agreement with our landlord,” Daulat shared.
He added that he’s hopeful Woodward and council will help find a new location for the drive-in theatre to operate.
Woodward told council at the time that he had met with the operators of the drive-in, who explained 16.8 per cent of their customer base is local, with the rest, more than 80 per cent coming from outside Aldergrove and Langley, making the theatre a destination that draws people from as far away as Vancouver Island.
“Staff are continuing to look at options,” Woodward told the Langley Advance Times.
“It has been a challenge to find other land outside of the Agricultural Land Reserve that would be available and economic for this use,” he said.
According to the driveinmovie.com website, the Aldergrove theatre is one of only three surviving drive-ins in the entire province, with the others being the Starlight in Enderby, and the Park in Prince George.
Tickets for the season’s opening weekend can be purchased at twilightdrivein.net.