Grand Rapids Free Movies in the Park Continues June 6th 2015
In 2013, the city of Grand Rapids began showing a series of movies downtown in Ah-Nab-Awen Park. The series continues now in its third year with the recently announced schedule of films. The movies aren’t all family or kid friendly but offer a nice free event for those looking for something to do in the area on a nice Friday night. Children under 15 must have an adult with them.
The lineup for 2015 is:
June 5: E.T.
June 19: Dazed and Confused
July 10: Dirty Dancing
July 24: Hook
August 7: The Matrix
August 21: Double Feature with Fan Voted Movie and The Lost Boys
You can vote on the fan feature here, which consists of the following options:
“Ghostbusters”
“Transformers”
“Jaws”
“10 Things I Hate About You”
“Mean Girls”
The winner of the fan vote will be announced at the July 24th showing of Hook. Fan voting ends July 10th.
The free movies are brought to you by Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., Friends of Grand Rapids Parks, and Franklin Partners. The movies will be shown on a 50 foot screen beginning at dusk. Pre movie entertainment begins around 7pm on the event nights.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own blanket, chairs, beer, wine, and snacks. No liquor is allowed and wristbands are needed for the consumption of beer or wine at the event. There are food vendors available. Last year’s crop of food vendors included Go Nuts, Spoonlickers, What the Truck, Woking Taco, Daddy Pete’s BBQ, Vito’s Pizza, Dorothy and Tony’s Gourmet Kettle Corn, and Ferris Coffee.
The 2014 lineup centered around the theme “Films Through Time”, which showed a movie focusing on each decade beginning with the 1940s. The movies were “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Grease”, “Dreamgirls”, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, “Top Gun”, “Jurassic Park”, and the fan voted “The Sandlot”.
In 2014, more than 19,000 people attended the Movies in the Park series. The economic impact of the movies was listed at $440,000.
As mentioned above, most of the movies are not kid friendly. E.T. and Hook were rated PG. Dirty Dancing had a PG-13 rating. The other movies were all rated R. We will be checking back soon with a list of other places in Michigan that show outdoor movies for free, which will also include better kid friendly ideas.
