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Final week for Aldergrove's drive-in theatre

Sept. 30 confirmed final day for Twilight Drive-In
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Last week of September is the final week for Aldergrove's Twilight Drive-In theatre. (Black Press Media files)

This is Twilight Drive-In theatre鈥檚 last week in Aldergrove.

The drive-in confirmed with The Star that Monday, Sept. 30, will be the theatre鈥檚 last day.

Movies screening are double features of classic films like 'The Rocky Horror Show,' 'Jurassic Park,' and 'Back to the Future,' among others playing until Monday. 

Earlier this year, owner and operator Jay Daulat posted on social media that the drive-in made a 鈥渓ast-ditch effort鈥 to save the theatre with a lease extension by the landlord, but they were told there would still be a huge rent increase.

鈥淭hey 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,鈥 the post reads.

Property taxes on the Aldergrove location, at 260 Street and Fraser Highway, have increased 260 per cent during the past three years 鈥 72 per cent this year alone, Daulat 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鈥檚 Twilight Drive-In theatre open.

In a previous email to Black Press Media, Daulat said overall attendance hasn鈥檛 bounced back to pre-COVID numbers.

鈥淯ltimately, it will be this season鈥檚 attendance which determines if a new location would be feasible in the future,鈥 he said.

The Star has reached out to the drive-in for an update.

鈥淲e all are very sad that future generations may not be able to have the drive-in experience, and ultimately we are disappointed we weren鈥檛 able to come to a viable agreement with our landlord,鈥 Daulat said.

91原创 Township Mayor Eric 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, while more than 80 per cent comes from outside Aldergrove and 91原创, making the theatre a destination that draws people from as far away as Vancouver Island.

鈥淚t has been a challenge to find other land outside of the Agricultural Land Reserve that would be available and economic for this use,鈥 Woodward told Black Press Media.

At its Sept. 23 meeting, 91原创 Township council reviewed the report from staff in which no "reasonable alternatives" were found. 

鈥淚 met with the owners of the business and the land, and was unable to see any path towards an ability for them to reach an extended agreement. The property owners have told me personally that they would like to develop the property. Alternative sites are not obvious ones that would be large enough and affordable for them,鈥 Woodward told The Star in an email.

鈥淚n order for the Township of 91原创 to assist the business, it would have to be restructured as a non-profit, which was of no interest to the operators, as I understand it. I am still hopeful something can be done to have this kind of option available in our community, we are limited in what we are permitted to do.鈥

In an email to The Star, the drive-in said they haven鈥檛 heard from the Township at all.

鈥淣ot even the courtesy of 鈥榦ur staff looked into it, and found no options.鈥 They didn鈥檛 bother replying to our follow up email earlier in the year.鈥

According to the driveinmovie.com website, the Aldergrove theatre was 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.



Kyler Emerson

About the Author: Kyler Emerson

I'm honoured to focus my career in the growing community of Aldergrove and work with our many local organizations.
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91原创

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