Columbia’s sidewalks will become a little more crowded this weekend as the True/False Film Fest draws people downtown.

The influx of festival-goers spending time and money downtown helps out local businesses, many of whom have sponsored the film festival.

Mustard Seed Fair Trade is a True/False sponsor this year, which seems to help bring in customers, Mustard Seed Executive Director Jessica Canfield says.

“True/False festival-goers are very loyal,” Canfield says. “They like to support the businesses that keep the festival going.”

As a sponsor, Mustard Seed donates to the “swag bags” given out to visiting filmmakers and certain True/False pass holders. This year, they donated chocolate.

The chocolates all have scannable Quick Response codes that link to the stories behind the chocolate, she says.

“We’re a fair trade store, so we thought it was important to share those stories,” Canfield says. “(Also, it’s) kind of a neat link with the film festival.”

Stores see an uptake in sales the whole weekend thanks to the film festival crowd.

Makes Scents, another sponsor of the festival, is staying open late on both Friday and Saturday nights, the owner Christina Kelley says.

“It is definitely better than a normal weekend,” Kelley says. “In the past, it’s always started on Thursday, and then we have a little bit of residual traffic on Monday. It’s a nice, solid five days of sales for us.”

All the extra customers means checking to make sure everything is well-stocked for Mustard Seed, Canfield says.

But at Hot Box Cookies, a late night favorite, there is no worry about running out of cookies, despite the big crowd expected. The owner, Corey Rimmel, might come in early to make extra cookie dough this year.

“I know especially Saturday night, last year, was a big night (for Hot Box),” Rimmel says.

More people walking around downtown and discovering, or rediscovering, stores helps local business out. The increase in foot traffic is very good, says Tina Bradley, a master designer at Allen’s Flowers.

“It’s nice to have so many out-of-town guests, as well as in-town guests who don’t always get downtown,” Bradley says.

This weekend is a good time to flash a True/False pass if you snagged one. Many of the downtown stores are cutting special deals for festival-goers.

Even with just a True/False ticket stub, customers get 10 percent off purchases, store-wide, at Mustard Seed. A little farther down Ninth Street, Makes Scents is running a 20 percent discount the whole weekend.