BigCityBeats To Host Club Night At Drive-In Theater

Following D.Live’s announcement about opening up the drive-in theater in Düsseldorf, Germany, promoter BigCityBeats has announced that it will host a club night on April 30, in line with governmental restrictions on public life.

500 cars occupied by two people max will be allowed onto the theater parking lot, allowing for a total of 1,000 guests to attend the show, which will feature BigCityBeats resident DJ Le Shuuk and friends.

Düsseldorf’s drive-in theater is close to D.Live’s Merkur Spiel-Arena, where BigCityBeats ist usually hosting the winter edition of its famous World Club Dome event series in January.

The company was forced to cancel its main summer event World Club Dome Las Vegas Edition after Germany followed the line of other European governments and extended the bans on large public gatherings until August 31 – effectively killing the continent’s summer festival season.

BigCityBeats CEO Bernd Breiter said difficult times called for exceptional ideas, and added that is was remarkable for his company to be able to give fans some of that World Club Dome live experience despite the circumstances. 

D.Live CEO Michael Brill spoke to VenuesNow about the unique idea of converting a drive-in theater into a concert venue – maybe even Germany’s only concert venue in operation right now.

The drive-in theater has been showing movies since April 7, on Easter Sunday  the parking lot was the site of a church service. “It’s been incredible,” Brill told Venues Now, “the audience is really coming, and it is grateful, really happy and more than willing to experience the program even under restricted circumstances.”

Concerts are the next step up. “Our message to this industry is: Let’s move on, there’s not time to stop. We need to keep the flame of our business burning,” Brill said.

Two stage elements are built to the left and right of the movie screen, joined by a catwalk, making the entire structure some 60 meters wide. Even the acts will have enough space to maintain the required distance.

The lighting setup can be expanded if a show requires it. There’s no PA system; the sound is transmitted to FM radios in the cars.

Consuming food and beverage is allowed inside the car. Two menus are available on each night and can be preordered or bought on site. The food is prepared in advance, and nothing is cooked on site during the event. Visitors are also allowed to bring their own food and drinks.