After recent renovations, Holiday Lanes has become a late-night hotspot.

On Thursday nights the bowling alley lets its hair down as 12-by-12- foot video screens descend at the end of the alley and top 40 music plays from a satellite radio while laser lights illuminate the lanes and fog machines gush for the bowlers to enjoy.

It’s called “Thirsty Thursdays” and for $5 bowlers get shoe rental and unlimited bowling from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. and drinks (soda, beer and cocktails) are all $1.50.

Holiday Lanes manager Loren Kaiser said “Thirsty Thursdays” attract around 60 to 100 people every week and it’s been big boost for the business.

“We knew that league bowling is down a little bit this year and we want to pump up the other side on it and that’s the purpose of it,” Kaiser said. “We’re working now to build up our weekend business.”

The promotion attracts a lot of college-aged customers and some high school kids. For young adults “Thirsty Thursdays” is an opportunity to taken in some cheap entertainment without having to go far.

Sometimes young people in Albert Lea decided to travel to bigger cities like Rochester or Mankato to go out, but “Thirsty Thursday’s” is something in their own backyard they can enjoy.

With the video screens, laser lights and loud music it feels like a night club and that’s what the patrons enjoy.

“It’s like a bar for younger people,” said Justin Mickelson, who has been coming to the bowling alley on Thursdays for around a year.

But it’s also different from a bar because there’s bowling involved and not everyone has to be 21 to be there.

One reason more younger people have turned out to the bowling alley is because Riverland Community College holds a bowling class out there once a week and a bowling league.

The fog machine, lasers and screens were all installed during the summer in the desire to boost the weekend business and reach a younger clientele. Kaiser said the addition of the video screens, fog machines, lasers lights have cost around $15,000, but the renovations didn’t stop there. During the summer the lanes and the machines were also renovated at a cost around $10-15,000.

Kaiser said league bowling is down about 2 percent this year, so attracting a different type of customer became imperative.

The college-aged crowd has been attracted through social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace with Holiday Lanes employee Dustin Barr doing most of the promoting. It’s a strategy that has worked. For Halloween, Kaiser said around 120 people turned out to the bowling alley.

“Dustin is a guru on doing all that stuff,” Kaiser said.

For those wanting to see what it’s like on a “Thirsty Thursday,” Kaiser said come early because the lanes are usually reserved and fill up fast.

On Friday and Saturday nights from 9:30 to midnight Holiday Lanes becomes the place for Xtreme Bowling. The black lights flicker on and the fog pours in while bowlers can toss glowing bowling balls down glowing lanes at pins that glow under the black lights.