Visitors to East Lansing can walk across the Breslin Center arena floor Saturday for $1 as part of the Be A Tourist In Your Own Town event.
Breslin and more than 60 Lansing-area businesses and attractions will offer free admission or discounts from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday for the 15th annual tourism event, sponsored by the Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau. For $1, participants receive a “passport,” which includes a map of open attractions and four special event bus routes.
Capital Area Transportation Authority will offer unlimited rides on the special event routes for 50 cents.
Tracy Padot, vice president of marketing for the visitors bureau, said the event’s goal is to make local residents more aware of what there is to do in the Lansing area.
“Legend is around our office that someone flew into Lansing and got into a cab and asked what there was to do and the driver said, ‘There’s nothing going on. You should get back on the plane.’”
Bruce Earhart, Breslin Center ticket office manager, said this is the first time Breslin has been involved.
Student ushers will give behind-the-scenes tours to areas not usually open to the public.
“We have a wall downstairs where everyone who’s ever performed here has signed,” he said.
Archives Book Shop, 519 W. Grand River Ave., also is a stop for the first time. Manager Ruth Tepin said old photographs from Lansing’s history will be on display and the store is offering a 20 percent discount.
Other new attractions this year include historic Lansing walking tours and a new ice cream flavor at the MSU Dairy Store, Padot said.
The new flavor is called Capital City Sundae and is made of vanilla ice cream with a butter fudge ribbon and brownie pieces, Dairy Store operations manager John Engstrom said.
Economics and international relations senior Matt Barkell said he was interested in the event.
“I don’t really know a lot about (the event), but I’m definitely going to check it out,” he said. “I wish there was more going on around here. I feel like we don’t have a well-developed urban center like Ann Arbor.”
According to the Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau Web site, passes are available in advance at Meridian Mall; the visitors bureau, 1223 N. Turner St., in Lansing; AAA Michigan, 2829 E. Grand River Ave.; Impression 5 Science Center, 200 Museum Drive, in Lansing; the CATA Transportation Center, 420 S. Grand Ave., in Lansing; Celebration! Cinema, 200 E. Edgewood Boulevard, in Lansing; and Lansing Art Gallery, 113 S. Washington Square, in Lansing.
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