photo from the Narrow Gauge Cinema Facebook page

There’s great news from Farmington ME this week. According to the Franklin Sun Journal, the Farmington Planning Board gave its approval to a new Big Sky Drive-In adjacent to the Narrow Gauge Cinema in town. It’s a darned good thing the board went along because, as the photos here and in the Sun Journal story show, construction of the screen was already well underway.

Owner John Moore said the drive-in would hold up to 60 cars. When asked whether its driveways were wide enough, Moore told the board he had traveled the space with a 7½-foot plow on his truck all winter.

I know that sharing the concession stand infrastructure between several screens helps the economics of anything like this project, but I especially love this quote as the perfect reason why an indoor / outdoor movie combination is such a great idea. “(Moore) believes there will be a balance between the two, as during good weather, which is perfect for drive-in movies, the cinema is slow. It picks up on rainy summer days when drive-in attendance would slow down, he said.”

They plan to open the drive-in during this summer. Although 60 cars sounds a little small, I’m sure the Big Sky can be a great success.