Accessibility links

Breaking News

Brazil Opens Drive-in to Help People Cope With COVID-19


People watch a movie from inside their cars at a drive-in installed in the Palmeiras soccer stadium amid the coronavirus outbreak in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 25, 2020.
People watch a movie from inside their cars at a drive-in installed in the Palmeiras soccer stadium amid the coronavirus outbreak in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 25, 2020.

Brazil has converted a football (soccer) stadium into a drive-in movie theater, its latest effort to lift national morale as the country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.

The Palmeiras football club’s converted stadium in Sao Paulo accommodates up to 300 cars.

Alessandro Tessari, a fan of the football team said, he could never imagine he would be watching a movie in the stadium.

Brazil’s movie theaters were among the first sectors of the economy to stop operations as the coronavirus outbreak grew, so it seems fitting fans are enjoying movies again, although it’s unclear if more theaters will reopen, because the virus remains active.

Aside from showing films, the stadium hosts stand-up comedy and children's theater.

The converted entertainment space, which opened Wednesday, will remain open until July 19. Those attending the drive-in pay between $23 to $100, with no more than four people to a car.

The theater experience is an outlet for a country that remains one of the coronavirus hot spots in Latin America, with more than 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and more than 55,000 deaths.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG