TORONTO -- The pandemic has inspired many of us to step back in time - we are baking more, learning new cooking skills, planting our own vegetable gardens, sewing our own masks. 

Now, as communities look for safe ways to slowly reopen and bring back entertainment outside the home, another blast from the past is making a comeback: the drive-in. 

While some outdoor venues hosting movie screenings, others are re-inventing the classic in-car experience in creative ways for the COVID-19 era.

In Paris, “Van Gogh, Starry Night” was a spectacular and immersive visual and aural feast that took the Dutch artist’s works and projected them wall-to-wall-to-floor in larger-than-life sizes inside a cavernous space. 

Now, the creators are bringing a similar exhibit, “Immersive Van Gogh”, to Toronto in the 4,000-square-foot space that formerly housed printing presses for The Toronto Star. They are touting the 35-minute show as the world’s first drive-in immersive art exhibit.

“You come with only people from your household and you stay in the car,” said Corey Ross, a co-producer behind the show.

It’s a temporary set-up until people can visit on foot, but in the meantime, Ross says there is room to safely accommodate 14 cars at a time. The exhibit, which was previously seen in Montreal at the start of this year, launches mid-June and tickets for the drive-in preview have already sold out.

Elsewhere, pop-up outdoor movie theatres are suddenly cropping up everywhere. 

A Canadian rock band, July Talk, is planning a live concert at a drive-in theatre this summer. In Saskatoon, one group is hoping to set up screens at multiple locations around the city so people can pull up and watch from their cars.Their first pop-up location screened Jurassic Park on Saturday. One Regina drive-in opened this weekend at 50 per cent capacity to accommodate the five-metre distance rule.

"The demand for the drive-thru is huge,” said Svetlana Dvoretsky. “Because people are just tired to be home. We all need something to do.”

British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are allowing drive-ins as part of its early phase of reopening. The status for drive-in theatres elsewhere in Canada is less clear. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, drive-in religious services are now allowed, as long as people stay in their cars and are parked two metres apart. In Ontario, drive-ins remain closed, even as some theatre owners are hoping to change that.

The drive-ins already opened have been a hit with families just happy to watch a film somewhere other than at home.

"Well I think it's great that they put in the effort to put this up and let people have fun, watch a movie on the big screen," said one young attendee at a pop-up theatre outside Red Deer, Alta.

And at actual drive-in theatres across North America, there’s been a surge of interest, with business booming at the locations where they’ve been allowed to re-open.

"I actually started to cry when we pulled in … it's an emotional time,” said another drive-in attendee.

“To be able to be out of the house and do something that’s so nostalgic, together and fun - it means a lot.”