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As a part of their 100 Days of Summer program, the city of Long Beach’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Marine offers free movies in the parks in Long Beach.
On Tuesday, July 15th, the department hosted a free screening of the movie “A Lego Movie” at Somerset Park on Carson Boulevard. The screening was scheduled to begin at 7:30. However, due to sun setting around 8pm, the movie could not start until that time.
Families from around the city, gathered for the screening where the department brought along its inflatable bouncers. Children could compete with one another in an inflatable obstacle course or slide down an inflatable slide. The children seemed to enjoy them as the lines continued to grow until the 7:50 cut off time.
Gabriel, of Long Beach Park and Rec, said that the screenings last all summer with lots of activities for the children to enjoy. On this evening, there was a coloring station available for the kids to work on. During his announcements, Gabriel shared that Papa John’s pizza was also a regular vendor at the event, offering $7 cheese and pepperoni pizzas, as well as refreshments. Gabriel stated that the food did sellout, but if patrons placed an order, Papa John’s may be able to get fresh orders before the movie began.
Before the movie began, children who were not in line for the inflatables or the food, were having fun with their friends, playing soccer, throwing around the ball. But when the inflatables started to come down, they ran to the free popcorn line where they could get a fresh movie snack.
Gabriel returned to the microphone to announce the beginning of the movie, which started like many movie theater experiences, parents loudly whispering to their children to take a seat or to lower their voices.
During the movie, the children were surprised and delighted by the appearances of their favorite characters from Batman to Superman to pirates. At the end of the movie, some children were tired and were carried away to their cars and homes; while others acted out scenes from the movie they just watched.
“A Lego Movie” will be screened two more times this week at Ernest McBride Park & Cal Rec Community Center and Houghton Park on Wednesday, July 16th and Friday, July 18th. Other movies playing during the 100 Days of Summer include “42 – The True Story of an American Legend,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2,” and “Despicable Me 2”
Movies in the Park is sponsored by Signal Hill Petroleum in cooperation with Partners of Parks.