As a fun way of entertaining and encouraging student engagement with on-campus activities, the Student Program Board (SPB) at Oakland University’s annual drive-in movie event will take place on April 9th.

Unlike the past drive-in movie nights, this year’s is expected to be different due to COVID-19. In this era of social distancing, SPB has worked to ensure a seamless and safe experience for everyone, and has found a way of indulging in entertainment while also remaining socially distant in their own automobiles.

They are limiting the attendance to 300 people and requiring everyone to remain in their vehicles at all times to adhere with the safety guidelines.

“Drive-in is a perfect Covid friendly event,” Kristyn Franzel, SPB annual events director, said. “Students are able to attend an entertaining retro evening without having the worry of spreading the virus to others. In a typical year, students are allowed to sit outside in front of the screen. This would be unsafe to do this year, so students will have to stay in their vehicles at all times.”

This year, the SPB is presenting “Knives Out,” a murder mystery movie that can keep the audience on their toes the entire time. Starring Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, this movie follows a master detective investigating a wealthy, dysfunctional family, according to IMDb.com. 

Kristyn Franzel, annual events director for the SPB, hopes that the movie will provide the students the thrills and excitement. The planning process of the movie night was not easy, however. 

With the difficulty COVID-19 has brought to the community, program/events directors have struggled to host on-campus events. From planning, contacting vendors, organizing to executing the event, there have been undoubtedly many challenges along the way. Despite the difficulties, Franzel expressed her enthusiasm toward this event.  

“Our goal is to provide entertaining, fun events all year round on campus,” Franzel said. “This year, it has been hard to host any events that were not virtual which is why we are so excited to host the Drive In again. We hope that attendees can leave the evening feeling a little less zoom fatigued and a little more excited about campus life. We’re looking forward to seeing students safely attending an event on campus. We also hope it provides a great break from all of the studying going on at this time.”

Despite strict regulations and guidelines including attendees being required to social distance and limitation of the number of attendees, the movie night will provide students a much-demanded break from school.

Seats are limited due to the guidelines; however, students can register for the event on GrizzOrgs for guaranteed attendance. For more information about the event, visit GrizzOrgs or SPB’s official FaceBook page.