Out, About: Nashville’s best movie theater is a park

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I grabbed dinner last night with one of my friends who’s a rare Nashville native — and even more rare, most of her local friends are people she befriended in kindergarten. That’s surprising to me because I’m the same way. It’s just that my friend group physically split up in adulthood between New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida, where we’re from.

And I’m heading back home later today to help one of my longest friends say goodbye to her childhood home. The story goes (since we were too young to remember our first meeting ourselves) that our moms were walking down our suburban street with each of us in a stroller and stopped to say hello to another mom. We were both wearing the same sunglasses from Baby Gap, and one of our moms (likely mine) said: “I like your glasses!” in a bad imitation of what their one-year-old’s voice sounded like. Our moms have been best friends ever since, and so have we.

I don’t talk to Laurie as often as I used to — which was 24/7 if you pull up our old AIM chat logs — so I am a bit envious of my Nashville friend whose group all remained in the area. But the thing about friends who are more like family is that it’s not the quantity but the quality of your communication. When I see her tonight, I know it’ll be like no time has passed.

And good news to all of you in Middle Tennessee this weekend: It appears I’m taking the heat back with me to South Florida. I’ll be sous viding in the 88% humidity while you all enjoy the much drier and cooler temps maxing out at 83 degrees these next few days.

Movie night

So many of my favorite childhood memories with Laurie are us going to the movies. We had the typical theater that played the summer blockbusters, a budget theater that would get the latest superhero flick a couple weeks late but only charged a few dollars to watch it in an otherwise empty theater (where we could make comments aloud about the comic accuracy of the movie), and the drive-in that offered just a couple family-friendly films at a time. They ultimately closed in the reverse order — replaced by luxury dinner theaters closer to the beach — but I grieved the drive-in the most.

I think about it sometimes: how that slice of Naples native life is my closest comparison to the old vs. new Nashville argument. (Where is my space here when the tourists have become the residents? When I can’t afford to live in the neighborhood I grew up in?)

And I think that’s why I get so excited when I see an existing space being utilized in new ways. No one was priced out. Nothing was knocked down. No concerningly speedy construction was completed.

So, yeah, that’s why my vote for best movie theater in Nashville goes to Bicentennial Park.

What is NightLight?

NightLight 615 is the “theater” of sorts that hosts movies in the park throughout the summer. It markets itself as “social cinema,” but I’d describe it as the new age version of a drive-in (more like a walk-in).

There is a DJ before the movie starts around sunset. There are concessions with $5 popcorn (cheaper than the indoor theater chains!) plus sodas and alcoholic beverages to purchase. The food truck lineup is pretty legit, typically including beloved places like Bad Luck Burger Club and Daddy’s Dogs.

One downside is that it is a 21+ event. But I hope its popularity (and that of the Nashville Scene’s Movies in the Park series every June) makes more places want to put similar movie-watching events together.

How much does it cost?

General admission is $17 per person, but you can get early entry for an additional $5. There’s no assigned seating, so it’s first-come, first-served.

And in the future, you may prefer a season pass for $170 that gets you a spot at every movie, early entry, and a vote on future film lineups.

What movies do they play?

It’s a range — from romcom to action to comedy. (Last night, it was a sold-out showing of Crazy, Stupid, Love.) But the last movies in the lineup, airing in October, are typically horror-adjacent.

You can find the full schedule here, and be warned, tickets do usually sell out well in advance. Next up is School of Rock on Thursday, Aug. 22. (Will I be thinking the entire time about the recent, short-lived breakup of Tenacious D? Most likely yes.)\