2020 has been one long game of “Who could have predicted at the beginning of the year that … ?”

That said, who could have predicted at the beginning of the year that the one thriving aspect of the live entertainment business would be drive-in movie theaters?

Most traditional concert venues have been shuttered for five months, and it’s unlikely the biggest ones will host live events in 2020. Live theater is in the same predicament.

With the exception of Warren’s Robins Theatre (which has more than 1,300 seats for audiences to space out among), indoor movie theaters in the area will make their first attempts at operating under social distancing guidelines starting next week.

Drive-ins have had to scuffle with “greatest hits” since the studios haven’t released any of the big-budget, high-concept titles that normally fill the summer slate, but they’ve become popular alternative destinations for everything from graduation ceremonies to concerts, and that doesn’t look like it’s changing, at least not until the northeast Ohio weather does.

Skyway Drive-In in Leavittsburg will host its second concert on Aug. 21 with regional reggae favorite Carlos Jones & the P.L.U.S. Band. Jones has been bringing reggae music and positive vibes for 40 years with I-tal, First Light and the P.L.U.S. Band.

Gates open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $100 per carload (maximum of six people per vehicle) and are available at www.skyway drivein.com.

After country stars Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton packed drive-ins nationwide with concerts available exclusively at those venues, Metallica is following suit with a concert that will be available at hundreds of drive-ins in the U.S. and Canada, including Elm Road Drive-In in Warren, on Aug. 29. It also includes a special guest performance by Three Days Grace.

Tickets are $115 per carload (up to six people per vehicle), and the price includes four digital downloads of Metallica’s “S&M2,” an album documenting two concerts the band played with the San Francisco Symphony in 2019. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster.

No area drive-in has embraced its status as a concert venue (and comedy club) like the Starlight Drive-In, which is located less than an hour from the state line in Butler, Pa.

Drusky Entertainment, which has promoted some shows in the Mahoning Valley, has about 10 shows booked there in the next month.

Comedian Bert Kreischer will do two performances on Saturday (the early show is sold out), and comedians Nikki Glaser (Aug. 27) and Brian Regan (Sept. 3) also are on the schedule.

Music fans can pick from Chase Rice (Sunday), The Struts (Wednesday), Aaron Lewis (Aug. 29), Marcus King Trio (Sept. 10), Steel Panther (Sept. 11) and Blackberry Smoke (Sept. 12).

Another trend is creating drive-ins in places where they didn’t exist before.

Starting Wednesday the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea will host The Parking Lot Social, billed as “America’s Wildest Drive-In Experience.”

The five-day event will include standup comedy on Wednesday, a Neon ’80s Movie Night on Aug. 20 with a DJ and “Back to the Future II” shown on two 40-foot screens; The Parking Lot Social on Aug. 21 and 22 with Car-A-Oke, Boom Boom Bingo, trivia contests and silent disco DJ battles; and a family movie night on Aug. 23 with “Grease” and a DJ.

Family activities are planned during the day on Aug. 22 and 23, and midnight movies will be shown Aug. 21 (“The Fast and the Furious”) and Aug. 22 (“The Purge”).

Tickets are sold per car (capacity is limited to the number of seats in the vehicle). Tickets and more information are available online at theparkinglotso cial.com.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor for Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.