There are a few summer rituals I try to do each year to ward off post-summertime sadness in Seattle:
🏖️ Going to a beach (preferably one with more sand than rocks)
🥳 Getting sweaty at a block party (it’s not summer until you’ve partied on hot pavement)
📽️ And catching an outdoor movie at sunset
August is the peak month to watch outdoor movies in Seattle, with series like Movies at the Mural (ft. Labyrinth, Shang-Chi, and others this year), U District Summer Movies by the Bay (ft. water-themed movies like Whale Rider and Moana), and Three Dollar Bill Cinema’s OUTdoor Cinema Program. (OUTdoor, cuz it’s gay.) Three Dollar Bill will show one of this summer’s funniest offerings, a free screening of The Birdcage on Alki Beach, on August 14th. This 26-year-old film about a gay couple in Miami, one a cabaret owner and the other a drag queen, holds up thanks to top-shelf performances from Nathan Lane and Robin Williams.
Seattle is a film town, and Three Dollar Bill Cinema is one of its leading film organizations. The LGBTQ+ focused group is most known for its annual Seattle Queer Film Festival (held in October) and Translations, Seattle’s Transgender Film Festival (usually in May). But it also has year-round film programming, like this popular annual outdoor series. This year, the series visits three spots: Elsom Cellars (D.E.B.S. on July 9), Jimi Hendrix Park (Purple Rain on August 28), and this draggy time on Alki Beach.
