This summer (2022) I had the pleasure of experiencing the new YEG Backyard Cinema, an outdoor backyard movie experience rental company owned by brothers Eudes and Evan Essapa.
Note: my experience was gifted and this blog post was not required in exchange—I just loved YEG Backyard Cinema so much I wanted to tell more people about it!
See the experience in action!
@lindorable Such a special backyard movie night 🥹💛✨ (gifted from #YEGBackyardCinema) 🎥 🍿 Learn more about them on my blog! #yeg #exploreedmonton ♬ original sound – Linda Hoang
Eudes and Evan started YEG Backyard Cinema in Summer 2022 and reached out to me to see if I wanted to give their business a try. I loved my experience so much—I wanted to blog about it!
The business rents out a 4k projector, 16′ inflatable screen, surround sound speakers, and foldable outdoor furniture for outdoor parties in the Edmonton area!
The idea for YEG Backyard Cinema was born during the pandemic—when there wasn’t much to do, the brothers started holding outdoor movie nights with friends and family, and realized there was potential to bring their love of this backyard movie experience to people across Edmonton. Such a great story!
YEG Backyard Cinema is a Black-owned, small Edmonton business that offers a few different packages depending on what you’re feeling.
For our gifted experience, we got to try the Family VIP Fun Fiesta Night package, which is a 7 p.m. to midnight rental, which includes the screen, projector, surround sound, lights, mosquito repellent machine, furniture, plus delicious crepes, croffles and waffles provided by The French Creperie—which is run by brother Evan (a very entrepreneurial family!)
Set-up and tear down is quick and easy, and during our particular night, we got great weather!
It only started to sprinkle a bit just as our movie was wrapping up.
I’m always so nervous about businesses that are weather-dependent, because Edmonton summer weather can be so hit or miss with bursts of rain or incorrect forecasts.
YEG Backyard Cinema does have a Cancellation policy (and rain would likely be the main reason for a cancellation), and date selection can get limited when you need to wait until it gets dark enough to watch the movie and you don’t want to stay out late on a weeknight (we started our movie around 9 p.m., ate our crepes/waffles around 8 p.m.) so I do truly wish them many hot, dry, summer nights versus rainy ones.
If it does rain mid-experience, they leave bags to cover speakers and ask you bring in the projector to your house so it doesn’t get wet.
Our YEG Backyard Cinema experience was probably, honestly, the most time we’ve spent out in our backyard so far this summer—but I hope it’s not the last.
I love being outside (we’re actually working on building our backyard oasis) and if we ignore the bugs, my backyard is a place I love to spend time in during our short but glorious summer days.
YEG Backyard Cinema is obviously best enjoyed with a group (that way you can also split the cost of the package!) It works great for outdoor movie nights, sporting events, special events, or we even said playing video games / doing video game competitions on the big screen that way could be a lot of fun too. I am told that they are hoping to get some kind of attachment around the screen which could provide some shade so you can watch things on the screen during daytime too—eventually, but they’re not quite there yet as of this post.
Think about YEG Backyard Cinema for birthdays, weddings, corporate, and other events.
It was a great addition to my #LindorkFest Birthday Month of activities!!
Some things to note if you book with YEG Backyard Cinema:
- Let your neighbours know you’re having an outdoor movie night—the surround sound speakers get pretty loud, and they also come to tear down in the wee hours of morning
- You use your own computer to connect to their projector (they do not provide movies or computers, but they provide an assortment of cables to connect to the projector). We just used Mike’s laptop, connected by HDMI. You can then just turn on a movie from Netflix, Disney+, or whatever streaming service you want to use.
- The sound and picture quality is amazing!
- They do bring extension cords to plug equipment in but they will need access to some kind of plug-in from your home.
- Officially, they say their set up fits in most backyards. The screen is the biggest equipment we have and is 14′ wide (and 16′ tall). For a perfect set up they recommend customers have at least a 20′ x 30′ of empty yard space with no height restriction.
- Officially the packages fit up to 6 people but that’s more about their own provided furniture. If you have extra chairs or patio furniture, and depending on size of your yard, you can really fit however many people you want to your backyard movie party!
- You do need to assemble the crepes if you get the package with crepes. It’s super easy though, we just popped the crepes, croffles and waffles into the oven for about 10 minutes to crisp them up, then top with the provided fruits and sauces. I would also make sure to have whipped cream on hand (I love whipped cream lol).
- Please be mindful of Edmonton weather forecasts and be considerate that this is a business. Cancellation policies, loss of deposits due to rain, or having to wait out short spurts of rain on hot summer days are very real things. In short, don’t be an asshole to Eudes and Evan if something out of all of our control—Mother Nature—affects your booked experience.
So that’s a little glimpse into our gifted YEG Backyard Cinema experience. I’m doing a giveaway for a Family Fun VIP Fiesta Night on my Instagram this week too so enter over there!!
I really wish Eudes and Evan the best of luck with their business!
It’s an awesome idea and such a special experience. I also appreciate that it’s not easy hauling around equipment, setting up, tearing down, and being on brink of potential cancellation due to rain all the time, so I think they do face some challenges other small businesses don’t necessarily have to deal with, so extra well wishes for their success.
If you do end up booking, tell them you heard about them through my posts!
I don’t get anything, but it’s just nice to know lol.
Small Business Spotlight is a shout-out series I write showcasing—you guessed it—small Edmonton area businesses. I prioritize Indigenous, Black, People of Colour and / or women-owned businesses (as statistically these business owners face the most systemic challenges to getting started and / or finding success). I do a smaller feature for small businesses via my free email newsletter as well. You’re welcome to suggest a small business to spotlight, though I offer no guarantees as to whether a business is spotlighted in my email newsletter or in more detail here on my blog, but if someone has a great story, or offers a product or service I think my audiences would absolutely love, I’ll find a space on the blog to feature them.
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1 Comment
Great post shared here, thanks