The City of Bellevue, with the support of Intelius, hosted the inaugural year of Summer Movie Nights at the Bellevue Downtown Park. Movies were shown for 5 weeks in Downtown Park every Tuesday at dusk, from July 7th to August 4th. The City’s vision was simple; they wanted to bring the community together for a free family activity during this economically challenging time.
We received feedback from the City of Bellevue to gage the response from this summer’s Movie Nights. For the 5 movies that were shown at Downtown Park there was an average of 645 people in attendance, with the largest attendance being on July 21st for “Second Hand Lions,” with an estimated 725 people. The city saw all demographics come out for the movies. Support has been high by community members, according to officials from the city.
It was great to see this event take place this summer, as it was long over due. Discussions among key stakeholders will begin shortly regarding the fate of next year’s Summer Movie Nights in The Park.
The Summer Movie Nights in the Downtown Park were a huge success! My kids and I attended all five. What isn’t mentioned is that the first movie only had about 70 in attendance and by week five word had spread and there were easily over 700 attending. This shows me that we need more of these type of activities for young families. These events build a sense of community in Bellevue, they are relatively easy and inexpensive to put on, and add greatly to our quality of life.
Awesome!! The Seattle Times didn’t list the downtown bellevue movie series on their outdoor films page, so that could’ve been a factor in the low attendance the first night.
I love how several cities have done this during the summers. I’ve been to ones in Redmond and Duvall, and it’s always a fun way to spend a summer evening. What a grand way to celebrate our short but sweet sunny season.