Major entertainment events converge on the same day in downtown Tampa

TAMPA - From the Sunshine Blues Festival in Vinoy Park to the RV Show at the Florida State Fairgrounds to the Monster Jam Truck Show at Raymond James Stadium. If you can't find something to do this weekend, you're not trying hard enough.

There's something for everybody, but downtown Tampa will be hosting the most people, the most traffic and the most excitement in years.

"It's going to be nuts, but good for business and good for downtown," says Lynn Pham, who opened  her Vietnamese Cafe, Bamboozle, five years ago, when downtown was known as a good place to nap on the weekends.

"It was very desolate, but very hopeful at that time. Now we've seen it grow and we're growing with the community, so it's very exciting.

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Lightning held an open practice and offered free lunch to fans who've endured a nearly four-month labor lock out.  Many of those fans will return to the Forum on Saturday, and compete for parking spaces with parade-goers and more.

Curtis Hixon Park is hosting  the Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival and The Straz Center for the Performing Arts has the enormously popular stage show, 'Wicked.'

The growing number of downtown residents, like Daniel Guess, say weekends like this is why they moved to the urban core in the first place.

It's funny because you'll still hear people complain that there's no parking in downtown and traffic and this and that, but I think that's a good problem.