West Wind Capitol Drive-In — Attraction in San Jose

Going to the drive-in in San Jose is still a thing! I have been coming to this drive-in with my family since moving to California in the mid 1980s. A lot has changed at this popular South Bay Drive-in movie theater. No more speakers to hang on your car window, your receipt for the show will tell you which radio station is broadcasting the sound for your movie. Each movie screen has a designated parking area separated from the others. My recommendation is to drive straight to the front to find the very best spots. A lot of people park towards the back thinking this is like an indoor theater. The front row at a drive-in puts you at nearly the perfect distance. As for amenities, you can bring your own or go to the snack bar. When purchasing your ticket online, you have the opportunity to order your snack bar food if you would like. I like to pack up my own food and drinks, making this a much higher end food experience. For most summer months in San Jose, I recommend that you bring some blankets and some folding chairs. Back the car into your spot if you have one that has a lift gate. Set up some comfortable folding chairs and a table full of food. Let the kids hang out in the back of the vehicle while adults enjoy the movie and snacks. Old time family fun that everyone will enjoy! This is the only affordable way for a family to see a movie on its release night. $9.50 for adults, $2 for kids! Use the website to purchase your ticket then go to your confirmation email to get the QR code ticket for entry. If it's opening night, I recommend that you get your ticket earlier in the day rather than closer to Showtime. They do limit the number of tickets they sell online but a lot of their business is drive up, paying at the kiosks. This makes for a very slow entry so it would be nice if everybody used the website to purchase. The movie previews start playing on time. The feature movie will generally start when it's fully dark. The lines to get through the kiosk are at their longest as it gets closer to dark. Good idea to get there a bit before that for the best choice of spaces and shortest lines for entry. There are six screens numbered from left to right as you enter. If you are going to screen number six, get in line for the kiosk furthest to the right. If you are going to screen number one, go to the kiosk closest to the left. This will make it a lot easier once you get through the kiosk. The best part of a drive-in is that it is usually a double feature. Immediately following your feature movie, a second feature will play. A two-for-one kind of deal. So make it a fun summer, go to...

Don’t tell me I’m the first one to think of this as something to (not) do or something that’s already happening:

Judging by grouping activity of cars and the occupants who obviously know each other as friends from outside the complex who group and converse in the viewing areas during the showings, their verbal reactions made at moments obviously unrelated to the movie, and the content of their exclamations being out of context of the movies, I’m certain that there is at least one group of people who get a kick out of using spy-type surveillance (cameras, unlit drones, night vision, maybe echo-location microwave imaging technologies - all of which are as inexpensive and easy for anyone to obtain) to watch unsuspecting patrons in their vehicles under the cover of darkness who have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It seems to be a fairly regular occurrence. It seems to me that, they have scouts at every screen that let other members of their group know about someone they find interesting, then those alerted members move to another screen to join in their “fun,” which seems to increase when more of the friends are together to react, make jokes and laugh in the presence of each other with the unsuspecting victims just a few cars away. I don’t need to prove this is happening for it to be true. It’s entirely feasible - and probable. If I’m correct, and I would bet a lifetime of bathroom tissue that I am, they are breaking the law due to the fact that people in their vehicles at a drive-in do, in fact, have reasonable expectation/assumption of privacy and anonymity while in their vehicles, which expectation and assumption is made more obvious when they’ve employed window shades, screens and/or tinted windows. I don’t know if the staff/owners are aware of it occurring, but I would be surprised if they didn’t. I do suppose that it’s possible that the establishment be held responsible for not issuing warnings to the unsuspected and to the potential perpetrators of the potential violations of privacy as well as any potential consequences, should something be discovered or some drama unfold. We still have the reasonable expectation of a certain amount of privacy. Perpetrators have the obligation to suffer the consequences for breaking laws. Some games can be...

Review 2: My experience at the West Wind Flea Market was very disappointing and disheartening. When I arrived around 9 a.m., another vendor and I entered through the drive-in area to pay for our spots. We asked the staff member at the front about the situation and whether there were still vendors and attendees inside. He told us that there were still people inside, but what he didn’t mention was that many of the vendors were already packing up and leaving.

What made this experience worse was the lack of honesty and transparency. The staff clearly knew that vendors were leaving and that there were barely any attendees due to the rain that morning. Despite that, they still charged us the $25 vendor fee with no refund option. If they had been upfront about the situation, we could have made an informed decision before paying. Instead, the experience came across as misleading and inconsiderate—especially for small vendors who rely on these events to make a living.

It was frustrating to see how poorly the situation was handled. If management knows that weather conditions are affecting attendance and that vendors are packing up early, they should communicate that clearly before taking payments.

Overall, the West Wind Flea Market needs stronger leadership and a fairer system for vendors. The way things were handled felt dismissive and unprofessional. Vendors deserve honesty, respect, and fair treatment—none of which were reflected in this experience.

Review 1: Not sure where to start, but here we go! Compared to the West Wind market in Oakland, the San Jose location definitely feels more lively and vibrant. I’ve been to both, and I can confidently say the San Jose spot feels safer and more active.

However, my biggest issue is with the management. They come across as overly strict and uptight, which really takes away from the overall experience. It kills the vibe and makes the place feel unwelcoming. Unfortunately, because of that, I wouldn’t come back—and I wouldn’t recommend it to...