The Finger Lakes Drive-In on Clark Street Road in Aurelius is one of those rare holdouts from a vanishing era of American entertainment — and locals are fiercely devoted to keeping it alive. This seasonal outdoor theater earned Gold for Best Movie Theater in 2022 and Silver in both 2023 and 2024, a consistency that reflects just how deeply it is woven into the summer rhythms of the Cayuga Lake region. When the weather turns warm, there is simply no better way to spend a Friday night than pulling into a gravel spot, tuning the FM radio, and watching a double feature under the stars.

The experience is exactly what it should be: unpretentious, family-friendly, and priced at a fraction of what indoor theaters charge. You can bring your own snacks (though the concession stand does solid business with popcorn and classic drive-in fare), pile the kids into the back seat or set up lawn chairs in front of the car, and settle in for two movies for the price of one ticket elsewhere. The screen is well-maintained, the audio — broadcast over FM — works surprisingly well through modern car speakers, and the atmosphere on a clear summer night is genuinely magical in a way that no luxury recliner theater can touch.

Drive-in theaters are disappearing across the country, which makes the Finger Lakes Drive-In feel less like nostalgia and more like a deliberate community choice. People come here not just to watch movies but to participate in something that connects them to the way their parents and grandparents spent summer evenings. The fact that it keeps winning FLX Finest awards is proof that this is not just sentimentality — it is a genuinely great night out.