In a gravel parking lot near the Deschutes River, Bend moviegoers are watching films in a way they haven’t experienced in more than three decades.

They’re parking their cars, trucks and vans together for the BendFilm: Pop Up Drive In summer movie series, which will run each Friday and Saturday through August.

Watching movies under the stars makes people nostalgic for the heyday of drive-ins, but it also allows them to gather at a safe distance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bend is one of several cities in Oregon embracing the pandemic trend of drive-in theaters. Temporary drive-ins are open across the state, including at the Lane County Fairgrounds and Portland’s south waterfront.

“I think people are really craving ways to connect, and it’s so cool to host this and let people socially distance but connect,” said Lizzy Latenser, spokesperson for the BendFilm Festival, which is hosting the drive-in theater series at the corner of Shevlin-Hixon Drive and Columbia Street near Riverbend Park in Bend.

BendFilm always wanted to create a drive-in theater experience, but never had the time, Latenser said. When the pandemic shut down traditional indoor theaters, BendFilm saw an opportunity.

Since late July, BendFilm has hosted drive-in movies at the parking lot near the river.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Each show has been sold out, and moviegoers are clearly enjoying the experience, Latenser said.

“People create whole picnics inside their truck beds or people come in vans and treat it like they are camping at the drive-in,” she said.

Drive-in theaters were once prevalent in Oregon. At their height of use, after the 1950s, about 50 to 70 were open in the state.

Most closed by the 1980s, when increasing property taxes and value of the land made it difficult to run a seasonal business. Many sold their land to box stores and shopping malls.

Three permanent drive-in theaters remain in Oregon — in La Grande, Newberg and Milton-Freewater. And as of October 2019, 305 theater locations were left in the United States, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association.

The three theaters in Oregon are family owned and did not feel the same pressures to sell as other theaters across the state. They each have a dedicated following of people who come to watch movies every year, in a pandemic or not.

“People just like the outdoor experience,” said Patty Johnson manager of the La Grande Drive-In, which has been open on the same property since the 1950s. “It’s been staying busy, about what we usually do.”

For other drive-in owners, keeping their theaters open was no longer feasible.

Marie Easter, 77, owned every drive-in theater east of the Cascades, including the Bend Drive-In Theater off Cooley Road, where Lowe’s is today.

Easter and her first husband, James Hutchens, bought the Bend Drive-In Theater in 1968. They operated it until the mid-1980s.

“I had to sell all my drive-ins,” Easter said. “The land got so valuable that property taxes went sky high too. We all had to sell out.”

Even in the early years, making a profit was tough, Easter said. Between the insurance, upkeep and payments to movie distributors, most of the profits were made from selling snacks.

Most theaters were only open in the summertime. Easter found a way to bring people to the drive-in during the winter months.

“In the winter, we played X-rated movies to get people out there,” she said. “Sometimes they would park on Cooley Road and sit out there in their car and watch it.”

Easter retired to Madras in the mid-1980s and opened a drive-in there, but it only lasted until 1988. Since then, Central Oregon has been without a permanent drive-in theater.

Seeing a pop-up drive-in open in Bend this summer has brought back many fond memories for Easter. She hopes the trend outlasts the pandemic. But for now, it’s the perfect way to watch a movie, she said.

“I think it’s very interesting what they are doing,” Easter said. “How else are you going to go to the theater now?”