LUCASVILLE- The volunteers of Growing Lucasville Opportunities (GLO) have come together to bring a massive summer event guaranteed to excite people through nostalgia and entertainment as they work to bring back the Lucasville drive-in for a one-time event called the Summer Nights Festival.

After an online campaign that excited the community, which allowed them to vote for their chosen movies, they’ve settled on four movies across two nights.

The movies include Friday, June 16ths Top Gun Maverick on the front screen and Shrek on the back screen, and Saturday, June 17ths Guardians of the Galaxy on the front screen and Cars on the back screen.

“We, as an organization, are trying to find opportunities and excitement for Lucasville. If you ask most of the people in Lucasville what they’d enjoy most about Lucasville would be to have the drive-in back,” GLO’s Todd Crabtree said. “Even if we can’t bring it back permanently, this is a good place to start and a great venue overall for a festival.”

Crabtree believes this will generate serious excitement for Lucasville and a potential renaissance for the future.

“Personally, and I’m speaking for myself and not the group, but I have a bigger hope and a bigger mission for the drive-in,” Crabtree said.

Social media exploded with news of the return as people flocked to the page to vote on their pick of movies. Crabtree is taking it as a good sign of people’s interest in the drive-in.

“Based on the response on Facebook and the general feel of the community, we feel that it is going to go over really well. We’re excited,” Crabtree said. “We’re going to have a DJ Friday night and WNXT will be there on Saturday night and we’re going to have some bouncy houses and vendors. It is going to be a little festival atmosphere and we think it will be well received.”

The Lucasville drive-in was a major aspect of the local identity and losing it was a major loss for not only that smaller community, but also the region as a whole. The group believes that pursuing a way to tap into that history and nostalgia is only good for Lucasville.

“It was a big part of people’s upbringing. It was a place where a lot of people went on dates. A place where people took their future wives on dates,” Crabtree said. “I spent a lot of great nights there with friends and girlfriends and I think it is a nostalgia thing for Lucasville residents.”

Crabtree was one of the founding members of GLO and believes strongly in the mission of the organization.

“If someone is going to do it, and it has to be someone, then it may as well be us,” Crabtree explained. “We are from here and we want to give people of Lucasville a reason to be proud to be here. We’re one of the few communities in the county without a park, for example. One of our missions is to change that. We are looking at a lot of things, really.”

GLO’s biggest project to date, and one the entire county has supported, has been the development of a new, massive park that will complement the community in a major way.

“We’ve completed phase one, which was the gazebo. Phase two, which we hope to complete this year, will be the amphitheater. We also have future phases, too,” Crabtree explained. “We will have a walking path and a nature trail that will circle the whole park and into the wooded area. There will be a war memorial, which should be going in this year as well. We’ll even have some playground equipment with some sensory elements for kids to play with. It is going to be a great place.”

The cost to attend the drive-in Summer Nights Festival will be $40 a carload. Follow GLO on Facebook to stay up to date on all of their activities.

Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved