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Drive-in Concerts

Written by Joscelyn Ervin // Illustrated by Danah Alshagdali


A new concert phenomenon started to pop up during quarantine



People have found many ways to adapt to social distance guidelines of the pandemic. One of the oddest new events that have begun to pop up throughout October and into the beginning of November is drive-in concerts. Though Ohio has only had a handful of these concerts, they’ve been met with varying degrees of excitement. Even though I’ve encountered multiple advertisements for these concerts since mid-September, everyone that I’ve talked to about them has felt the same way so far — they’re probably not worth it. All of my coworkers and friends have the same thought that these drive-in concerts — or drive-in events — are not worth the price of admission. Why drive out somewhere and stay in your car when you can get almost the same experience watching something at home? It doesn’t make sense — especially when comparing the ticket prices of these concerts to ticket prices for drive-in movies.


Double-feature, drive-in movie tickets in Ohio range from $8 to $15 a night. Tickets for drive-in concerts, on the other hand, cost on average about $100 to $200 per car, with varying limits on number of people per vehicle. This price is steep, considering these concerts offer essentially the same experience as a drive-in movie.

Even though I think these concerts aren’t worth the hype, this didn’t stop them from having their own little surge in popularity. Once the United States began shutting down mid-March, the arts industry suffered an especially fatal blow. This includes theater, music, museums and especially concerts. Musical artists were forced to cancel or postpone their concerts and tours until next year or so. However, once some states started to gradually reopen, some smaller artists — and very few larger ones — thought it would be a good idea to try drive-in concerts. One of these larger artists that gave this a try was Keith Urban.

"Once everything began to shut down ... one of the most damaged parts of the economy was the arts."

These concerts mostly took place throughout the end of September and October. Now that the weather is getting colder, not many at all are scheduled to take place in November. In fact, I couldn’t find any local ones that will happen near Northeast Ohio.

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