A First Look At Philly Soccer Fan Fest
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Unless you are one of the lucky few that have tickets to a World Cup game at Philadelphia Stadium, or you work there, you will have no luck getting the Philly soccer experience. Almost. While you won’t be watching the games in person, there is a HUGE Fan Fest/ watch party for most of the FIFA games being played all over the world. Including those in South Philly.
Fan Fest, is a huge interactive watch party that is happening on Lemon Hill Park.. Before you go jumping in your car to get there, you can’t drive there. This event is not accommodating vehicles. You can find a lot to park in in center city and take public transportation, or you can try to park at the zoo. If you live close, you can walk.
This is a secure area so leave your backpack and umbrella at home. Soft plastic water bottles are fine, hard ones are not. No food is allowed in, bring your wallet, you have to buy it there if you want to eat. A Cheesecake is a whopping $24.00 an a soda is $6.00. Lots of people will be complaining about the concession prices. You can fill plastic water bottles for free. Cameras with detachable lenses are not allowed without credentials.
So besides watching the soccer games, you can visit the attractions , such as the Home Depot back yard, that also has activities to do. Bank Of America s giving out free bracelets. and a few corporate sponsors have places to watch the game.
Most probably, you will want a souvenir. They are sold there and it is expensive but FIFA partnered with VISA and you can get a 10 percent discount on merchandise. A good hack if you don’;t have a VISA card is to take cash to a bank and get a VISA debit card and use that. Plus if you lose it, it’s a lot more difficult to use than cash.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com A view of the stage and viewing screen. Expect concerts on certain nights.
The fan fest can accommodate 15,000 fans at any given time. Portable toilets are located on the west side and east side. There are about 100 of them. Fans wanting to come to this should arrive early and beat traffic.
Media from all over the world will descend of Philadelphia for this, the America 250 Celebration and the All Star Game. Extra police and security personnel will be deployed at the Fan fest as well as at Philadelphia Stadium. This fan fest will run for 39 days.