The Lithuanian airport, vacated by the virus, turns into a drive-in cinema
About 150 cars were shown on the tarmac of the airport to watch the Oscar-winning “Parasite”, as theaters locked to prevent the spread of the Kovid-19 were unlimited.
Coronavirus outbreaks on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, with regular theaters shut down, make people take off planes and sit in their cars at the airport’s new drive-in cinema. .
(Mindougas Culbis / AP)
Hundreds of movie fans flocked to Lithuania’s main international airport on Wednesday night for a drive-in cinema created under the shadow of a coronavirus epidemic.
The organizers of the Vilnius International Film Festival (Vilnius IFF) teamed up with the city’s airport to create the Aerosenema Drive-In.
They want to give people a chance to go out for a movie amid a month-long coronavirus lockdown that shut down theaters.
“We’re giving people a new kind of journey on the airport tarmac,” organizer Algirdas Ramaska told AFP, standing in front of a five-story building as tall as a screen.
“We’ve been dreaming about it for a while, but it can only come true after the airline has virtually shut down,” he said, referring to the plane’s ban imposed in mid-March to prevent the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
Social distance measures were in effect for Wednesday’s screening of this year’s Oscar-winning South Korean “Parasite.”
About 150 cars are parked at the airport tarmac at least two meters apart, with a maximum of two people per vehicle.
“I felt awkward and excited when I saw the clutter of the sun, the big screen and the planes around it,” filmmaker Jolita Whitekutte, 24, said after the screening.
“We can’t enjoy airplanes or movies right now (under lockdown), but tonight we got both at the same time,” he said.
Tickets go for ಕಾ 15 ($ 16) per car, with proceeds going to Vilnius IFF, which operates on a non-profit basis.
Last year, Vilnius Airport served five million passengers but was empty when the Baltic EU state imposed its lockdown from mid-March.
While some passenger flights will resume on May 10, Ramaska said the drive-in cinema will continue to operate in May as air traffic has been around for some time.
Among the first EU members to ease lockdown restrictions, Lithuania has already reopened open-air restaurants and cafes, and shops and libraries have closed while infections have slowed.
Vilnius Mayor Remigius Simacius said the cafೆಗಳನ್ನುs have been given free use of public spaces and they want the capital to become “a giant outdoor cafe.”
The Ministry of Health has confirmed 1,375 cases of coronavirus, including 45 deaths in Lithuania, the eurozone’s nation of 2.8 million people, as of Wednesday.
