Once
our tour group checked in at the St. Regis Hotel, we headed to downtown Detroit
to check out the Hockeytown Winter Festival.
As part of the build up to the
Winter Classic, this free outdoor festival
allowed fans to partake in some good, ol’ fashioned fun.
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| Hockeytown Winter Festival |
Located
right across from Comerica Park, the Hockeytown Winter Festival took up a whole
city block. This was perfect for us as
we had tickets to the American Hockey League outdoor game that night between
the Toronto Marlies and the Grand Rapids Griffins. It came with the tour package that we bought
through Elite Sports Tours when Nick and I decided to buy
Winter Classic tickets.
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| Hockeytown Winter Festival |
Here
are some of the highlights we experienced during the Hockeytown Winter
Festival.
Getting a Photo with the Comerica Park
Tiger Statue
Comerica
Park – home to the Detroit Tigers baseball club – was responsible for hosting
some key events during the Winter Festival, including the two Alumni games
between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.
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| Fans getting a photo with the Tiger statue |
To
commemorate this occasion, the giant tiger statue at the main entrance to
Comerica Park was adorned with an over-sized Red Wings jersey. Needless to say, many fans stood in line to
get photos with the awesome display.
Red Wings Experience
The
first thing that Nick and I decided to check out was the Red Wings
Experience. Upon entrance, we saw an
artist painting a huge canvass that paid homage to the 2014 Winter Classic and
Hockeytown Winter Festival.
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| The Red Wings Experience |
As
we continued to walk around the tent, we saw line-ups for air hockey and bubble
hockey tables. Since we only had about
an hour or two to kill before the AHL Outdoor Hockey game, we didn’t linger too
long in this tent. Alcohol was
available, but we grabbed some Coke Zero instead as it was free given Coca-Cola’s
sponsorship of the Winter Festival.
There was also a small stage near the front for music acts to play, but
there was a break in the schedule while Nick and I were here.
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| Air Hockey game in progress at the Red Wings Experience |
Snowzilla Mobile Tubing Slide
The
name of this exhibit speaks for itself.
Right near the front entrance to the festival is a large inflatable tubing
slide for young kids to play on. Even
though I like to believe that I am still “a kid at heart,” I gave this slide a
pass for obvious reasons.
Street Hockey Rink
Across
from the Red Wings Experience was a street hockey rink. I believe there was a $5 fee to play for a
set amount of time, and you had to register at the tent in front of the
rink. Neither Nick nor I were wearing
appropriate attire to play some pick up street hockey, but this was definitely
fun to watch for a few minutes.
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| Inflatable Toronto Maple Leafs Puck |
Hockey Hall of Fame Tent
Next
to the ball hockey rink was the Hockey Hall of Fame tent. The lineup to get in were ridiculously long –
anywhere from 20 – 45 minutes – and because we live in Toronto and can visit the
Hockey Hall of Fame anytime we want, Nick and I just went in for a quick peek
once the festival was about to close up for the afternoon. Among the memorabilia displayed in the tent,
getting your photo taken with the Stanley Cup was the biggest highlight for
this exhibit.
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| Coke Zone Fan Zone at the Hockeytown Winter Festival |
Synthetic Ice Surface Open Skate
We
came across another rink at the Winter Festival, but this time, it was open
skating rink that used synthetic ice.
Skate rentals were about $5/hour, but we gave this a pass, as well. Time was running out on us before the AHL
Outdoor game, and we still wanted to spend some time checking out Molson
Canadian Hockey House.
Molson Canadian Hockey House
Canadians are quite familiar with the Molson Canadian Hockey House as this exhibit is usually found at any major sporting event, like the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The House welcomes fans with an over-sized maple leaf entrance.
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| Molson Canadian Hockey House |
Once
inside, you basically can plop your butt at the main bar and watch the World
Junior Hockey Championships in this case.
Otherwise, there are some additional games that you can play, like air
hockey and bubble hockey.
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| Watching the World Juniors at Molson Canadian Hockey House |
At
the time of the 2014 Winter Classic, there was a famous commercial airing in
Canada in the preceding months where Molson would randomly drop off fridges around the world. If you
were the owner of a Canadian passport, then you could scan it in the fridge to
open it up and have yourself a free bottle of Molson Canadian.
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| Wishing I had my Passport with me to scan! |
This commercial was a huge hit back home, and
sure enough, the Molson Canadian fridge was here at the Hockey House. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my Passport on
me or else I would have scanned it for a free beer!
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| Tickets to the AHL Outdoor Game & 2014 NHL Winter Classic |
Aside
from that, there was not much else going on at the Festival grounds. A couple of hours was all that was needed
here before we headed into Comerica Park for the AHL Outdoor game.
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