 Hockey Day Minnesota is bringing thousands to the city of Bemidji. Dozens of local businesses downtown are getting ready for the crowds with special events, deals and services throughout the weekend. Our own Cheryl Moore tells us more about Hockey Day downtown. The main stage for Hockey Day may be at the Sanford Center, but downtown Bemidji is another great place to be. For exclusive Hockey Day weekend fun. There will be shuttles bringing you downtown and just lots of downtown activities like at Bemidji Brew. I think they're going to be showing different types of hockey movies and there will be hockey games going on inside the bars and restaurants. From food to retail and even art. Special Hockey Day weekend only events are happening all over the area. At the Watermark Arts Center for example, kids can paint their own hockey stick. They can paint it and decorate it however they want. They could put their name on it, they could put their favorite team on it or just maybe a favorite word of inspiration or just decorate with patterns. It's totally up to them. Many of the bars will be showing the hockey games, but they'll be combining the games with other activities. We're getting a projector to have the games playing all weekend long. Friday and Saturday there at least. And Thursday night we are doing a what you call puck drop party. It's kind of like a cake off party but it's hockey. So that we'll have karaoke, drink specials, food specials. Super excited about that. Bar 209 staff will be pulling double duty by catering part of hockey day while also running their downtown restaurants. They've hired 30 additional people just to keep up with demand. We're catering for the VIP tent is the big part of it. So the Saturday event and we've got about 600 people for each meal and then we're also helping out with the Thursday night Sanford Employee Appreciation Event and I think they expect about 3,000 people. So we've got a big portion of that and that's what we're working on right now. And then if you want a souvenir to help you remember hockey day and Bemidji for years to come many retail shops are selling hockey themed gear, cups and even pucks. We're also just stocking up a lot on inventory in general since we know it's going to be a really cold weekend. So we've got a lot of different knitwears and hats and mittens and all kinds of fun hockey gear and also just Minnesota stuff in general for people who might be from out of town. Reporting in Bemidji, Sheryl Moore, Lakeland News. And make sure you bring your hockey day ticket if you plan to be downtown. Tickets can give you access to a few exclusive deals around the downtown. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.