Address: 1 David Mugar Way on the Charles River Esplanade
Pricing: Free
Phone: 617 787 7200
Hours: 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
How To Get There:
The Hatch Shell is on the Esplanade, between Storrow Drive and the Charles River. Parking in the nearby Charles Street area is limited. Best to take the Red Line T to the Charles/MGH station at Cambridge and Charles Sts. Then the foot bridge (across the rotary outside the T station) across Storrow Drive to the Esplanade. Walk west (left) at the end of the foot bridge.
Parking:Public tranport best, but lots, street available.
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Free movies return to Boston’s Hatch Shell
Jun 4, 2010
For 25 years, on warm summer evenings, families have brought lawn chairs, blankets and picnics to watch free movies at the Charles River Esplanade.
Free-Friday films at the Hatch Shell begin at sundown June 18 and end August 27.
But the films are only part of why so many people come to the Esplanade in the late afternoon for sundown movies.
“It’s the setting that makes it magical,” said a spokesman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which sponsors the series with WBZ NewsRadio and local businesses.
“The movies are good – they’re all family-friendly – but when it’s a beautiful summer night right by the river, the movies almost don’t matter. It’s a great place to be.”
The schedule has recent films like How to Train Your Dragon, Disney/Pixar Academy Award-winner Up and classic movies like The Wizard of Oz. There’s even an audience sing-along with the 1978 musical Grease.
The Esplanade, between Beacon Hill and Back Bay and the Charles River Basin, is an attractive, green urban park. Being in cooling river breezes is one way Bostonians coped with summer before almost-total air conditioning.
This is the second year movies will be shown from Blue-Ray disks. They replaced DVDs, which – only six years ago – replaced 16-mm films on two old projectors.
DCR park rangers are on the Esplanade and state police have a barracks nearby. Sponsors urge an early arrival to get a good spot on the lawn in front of the Hatch Shell.
Attendance depends on the weather, but is usually about 1,000, said WBZ’s Laurie Lamper. “But if it’s really nice, we can get up to 3,000 people.”
Movies typically begin about 8:30 p.m. But family activities start at 6:30 with food samples and treats from the WBZ tent and activities and games, like ring-toss and fishing for museum passes in a kiddy pool. There are also nearby concession stands.
HelloMetro Tip: In case of bad weather, call the Free Friday hotline at 617-787-7200 for cancellation information. The movie schedule is at www.wbz.com/Free-Friday-Flicks-2009/4419168
Scheduled films are:
June 18: Grease Sing-A-Long
July 9: The Wizard of Oz
July 16: Star Trek
July 23: Where the Wild Things Are
July 30: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
August 6: Monsters vs. Aliens
August 13: How to Train Your Dragon
August 20: The Princess and the Frog
August 27: Up
- by Dan Sheridan, Boston Reporter for HelloMetro
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Dan SheridanDan Sheridan is an editor, reporter and media specialist with a background in newspapers, magazines and publishing. He has reported from Tokyo, Singapore and Bangkok and wrote Access Boston, the popular guidebook, from 2002 to 2008.
