For anyone who has been missing community events and activities or the simple joy of going to see a movie in a theater, Oxford Mainstreet, Inc.(OMI) is planning two evenings of family entertainment that will be sure to please.

OMI will be presenting Carpool Cinema, which will take place at the Oxford Area Regional Park (900 West Locust St. in Oxford) on April 16 and 17. The animated hit “Happy Feet” will be the featured movie on Friday, April 16, while “A League of Their Own” will be shown on Saturday, April 17.

“Both evenings are family friendly,” said Christy Hannum, the executive director of Oxford Mainstreet, Inc. “The reason that we wanted to do drive-in movies is that many of our First Friday events were cancelled because of the pandemic. We wanted to plan a safe, socially distanced event that families could enjoy.”

The gates will open at 6 p.m. each night, and the movies will begin at 7:30 p.m. 

Homemade kettle corn will be sold by Wholly Grounds and the candy vendor will be selling Toots Sweets candies.

Hannum said that tickets to attend a movie are $25 per vehicle and can be purchased on the Oxford Mainstreet, Inc. website at downtownoxfordpa.org.

“Happy Feet” is a 2006 computer-animated musical comedy film that won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature that year. It was directed, produced, and co-written by George Miller, and it stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, and E.G. Daily. 

“A League of Their Own” is a 1992 film directed by Penny Marshall that stars Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, and Lori Petty. The movie tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that ran from 1943 to 1954.

The Carpool Cinema event will raise funds for the Shoebox Theatre project. OMI has been leading the effort to renovate the space at 21 South Third Street into the Shoebox Theatre, which will offer 50 seats for movie screenings, and is the first step in a process to bring an entertainment venue back to Oxford.

Hannum also shared an exciting update about the Oxford Car Show, a popular annual event that usually attracts one of the larger crowds in Oxford. Hannum said that OMI is proceeding with plans for the car show to take place in September, most likely on Friday, Sept. 3. OMI will be ready to present the seventh annual car show as long as federal, state, and local guidelines will permit such an event to safely take place. So the Carpool Cinema will be just the beginning of the fun in downtown Oxford this year.