Warner’s Drive-In To Dedicate New Stage At Community Appreciation Event
“Back in the day, the heyday of drive-ins, there were probably 6000 drive-ins in the country, all over, you know, people wanted to get in their car and do stuff, and this is one of the things you could do. And over time, into the ‘70s and ‘80s, that kind of petered out a little bit. But what really killed these organizations was when the movie industry went from film to digital, because that required everybody to upgrade all their equipment, and all these drive-ins were operating on such a tight margin that a lot of them couldn’t afford to make that transition.
So from 6000 they’re probably 600 drive-ins in the country now between 400 and 600.”
That is the voice of Bob Davis, one of the Board members of Warner’s Drive-In, located in Franklin, WV. My wife and I recently headed down to Warner’s to take in some movie entertainment and speak with Mr. Davis and fellow Board member Gail Price about the facility.
Years ago, the drive-in was threatened with destruction but was saved by concerned citizens.
“So, as Gail said, we came together as a non-profit board in 2016 because otherwise the plan was to bulldoze this and extend the highway department over here. But a bunch of us got together and said, ‘No, no, no, don’t, you know, we love the drive-in’. So we put a nonprofit together.”
They were able to raise funds to convert the drive-in for digital movie use, but there were more ambitious plans in the works.
“And one of our early dreams was to do something more than in addition to just movies. One of our dreams was, let’s build a stage and let’s do some live music stuff. Well, that was 2016, so it took us almost 10 years to put the dream into reality, but we went out, did some fundraising in the community, got some support, got some grant funding, and with that, we were able to build this stage.”
The stage he is referring to is a beautiful 1,000 square foot building located at the base of the 5-story movie screen building called the Starlight Stage, in keeping with the drive-in theme. Mr. Davis explained they were able to find a local contractor who shared their vision, and worked through this winter to get it completed, with a quilt star pattern built into the floor and sliding doors. Pictures are available with this story on our website.
This past summer, a half-dozen musicians and bands performed there as a “soft opening”, to work the kinks out of the stage and sound system. Ms. Price talked about future potential uses.
“Well, one of the ideas we talked about, too, was just having, like special events that the community can use it. We want the community to come in. I mean, we showed this just recently to Raymond’s Gymnastics, they’re performing on September the 6th, and they were excited about maybe holding some of their events here, that type of thing. So that’s one thing we’re thinking about using the stage for. But then, you know, we’d love to have more concerts and things just, like on a Sunday, or maybe take a weekend we don’t show movies and have a big concert weekend. Or, who knows. I mean, the options are open.”
Ms. Price mentioned Saturday, September 6th, where they will hold a community appreciation event, which will also double as the stage’s official dedication.
“A free admission thank-you to the community, for supporting us for all these years. And we’re starting out with performances on the stage, because it’s not just music, it’s also performances. And the Little Switzerland cloggers are going to be here at 2:00, and we have Raymond’s Gymnastics at 1:00, and then we have history, a lady that’s doing interpretation. But then that evening, we have live music, and our headliner event is Robin and Linda Williams from the Shenandoah Valley, and that’s a free concert for people.”
“And we’ve got food trucks coming. We’re going to be having traditional demonstrations of crafts, basket-making, felting, bee-keeping, maple syrup, I mean just on and on. And this is all community that’s coming and doing this, so I’d like, you know, everybody to put it on their calendar – September the 6th starting at 1:00 here at the Drive-In.”
For more information about the Drive-In and stage –
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