Thousands of students pack the Arlington for Mike’s Field Trip to the Movies

Nearly 2,000 students from Santa Barbara to Santa Maria packed the Arlington Theater Thursday for the annual event known as Mike’s Field Trip to the Movies, in honor of the late Mike deGruy.

The outing is a film festival highlight and a popular event for students from 14 local schools.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was the feature film.

Afterwards, a Q&A session between SBIFF Executive Director, Roger Durling, and two of the film’s directors. Durling posed the questions, including one from students at La Patera Elementary School in Goleta who wanted to know which scene was the most difficult to shoot. The answer: the cemetary scene.

This was the perfect field trip for a rainy day and delivered a great message to the fifth and sixth graders.

“To fight for what you love and never give up,” said one student.

“I’ve never been to the Arlington Theatre and really liked it. It was cool,” said another.

The majority of the students have never been to the annual SBIFF let alone, the local theaters.

“This is one of the great benefits of Santa Barbara,” said film festival volunteer Phyliss Cohen. “Multicultural, extermely conscious of children being exposed to the arts. I’m an art teacher so for me, it’s a great, great joy!”

Two free movies will show this weekend at 10:00 a.m. at the Arlington Theatre.

On Saturday, another viewing of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Then, on Sunday, “Ralph Breaks the Internet.”

For the full SBIFF schedule, click here.