Hawke's Bay's open-air cinema's incredible run: 16 years, zero cancellations

The Black Barn crowd settles down for a Saturday night of A Star is Born. Photo/Paul Taylor

Some may have wondered whether it would last, but other than simple inevitability of the daily twilight around which it was founded, there's no sign of the sun going down on the now well-established Black Barn Vineyards Open Air Cinema season now in its 16th year.

Instead, it's grown, says Black Barn cellar door events manager Francis de Jager, with the 2019-2020 season expected to show to over 5000 people through fortnight-long showing of nine movies in a fortnight.

It started on Friday with things almost as up-to-date and nostalgia-plus as they could be with the showing of Dan Carter: A Perfect 10, released in cinemas less than six months ago.

On Saturday night it was the 2018 remake of 1937 and 1976 movie A Star is Born, and on Sunday night the 2019-released version of 1994 Disney classic The Lion King.

Flashback as Black Barn movies conceptualiser Urs Blum and cellar door events manager Francis de Jager check site readiness for the first moves in January 2005. Photo/File

The pre-New Year's Eve stage of the season ends on Monday night with Beatles-music fantasy Yesterday.

There will be five more nights of movies from Thursday to next Monday, gates opening at 7.30pm but the starting time for each movie determined by the sunset of each day.

They aren't the only open-air movies going in the Hawke's Bay summer with the Napier City Council events marketing team rolling out a three-night mix of children's and adults movies at Bay Skate, the site of former longtime Marine Parade attraction Marineland.

The first is on January 5 with computer-animated Hotel Transylvania 3 at 5.30pm, and rock and roll era love story Grease at 7.30pm.

On January 12 the series shows The BFG and The Shawshank Redemption, and on January 26 the features are Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Dirty Dancing.

De Jager says that in January 2005 when the first movies were show he would have been happy to get 200 people a night.

But the 900 on Saturday night was typical of the modern era as moviegoers show their confidence in the stable weather mixed with the appeal of the movies and the amphitheatre setting looking over Hawke's Bay.

"It is something pretty special," he said.

The weather over the years had been so reliable that while there have been some "damp" nights, there have been no cancellations in the 16 years, although one showing was moved indoors to the cellars' bistro area.