Saturday night marks the official public opening of the Strand, the culmination of months of hard work and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. On Friday night, an invitation-only event was a chance to celebrate the opening of an old Vineyard institution with supporters.
The Strand movie theatre in Oak Bluffs, shuttered since 2011, will have its grand reopening this weekend. On Friday night there will be an invitation-only event; Saturday night the Strand will open to the public with two film showings.
The Capawock Theatre in Vineyard Haven and the Strand Theatre in Oak Bluffs are nearly ready for their grand reopenings to the movie-going public.
One agreement is signed and a second set to be finished that will allow two historic Vineyard movie theatres to reopen for the summer season, organizers say.
A campaign to revive two historic movie theatres has raised more than a third of its $1 million goal. Mark Snider, who created a nonprofit to renovate and lease the Strand and Capawock cinemas, said he has collected $350,000 in pledges in one week.
Mark Snider, owner of the Winnetu Oceanside Resort and the founder of a new nonprofit, is finalizing an agreement with Benjamin Hall Jr. to lease the Capawock and Strand theatres for 10 years, and reopen them beginning this summer.