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Residents who live near East Fairmount Park’s Lemon Hill got an update this week from city officials and organizers of the FIFA World Cup fan festival site at Lemon Hill.
The virtual meeting outlined the security, transportation and parking measures that go in place during the 39 days the “soccer Coachella” will be running, from June 11 until July 19. Officials also answered some specific questions that residents had.
“Philadelphia is currently the biggest fan festival in the United States,” said Michael DelBene, Philadelphia Soccer 2026’s executive producer of the fan festival. “We’re the only host city that is going 39 continuous days. We’re the only host city that is programming all of the rest-days. We’re also the only, or one of the only, host cities that is doing it for this many days 100% free for all those to attend.”
The site will have a live broadcast of most of the World Cup games — even the six at “Philadelphia Stadium” — live on big screens, along with music from more that 60 local artists, food from over 80 different food trucks, a vendor village and other entertainment.
Many residents in the surrounding neighborhoods and commuters have raised concerns that it will also bring traffic congestion, illegal parking and a spillover of disorderly soccer fans around Kelly Drive and other adjacent areas. Around 300 people logged on for the info session.
The fan fest site will open on June 11 and be open every day of the tournament, including the five rest days when there are no games scheduled. DelBene said the buildout of the site will begin from May 26, with continuous work on the site until June 8 and Poplar, Sedgley and Lemon Hill drives will be closed till July 19.
To prepare the park for the festival, and as part of the promise to improve it as a legacy project after the festival is over, repairs and upgrades have already been made to sidewalks, ramps, intersections and signals around the site.
During the festival period, Girard Avenue, Kelly Drive and Poplar Street will remain open to vehicles. The outer lanes of the Ben Franklin Parkway will be closed from Memorial Day until Labor Day, swapping out with the inner lanes closing during the July Fourth concert planned on the Parkway.
“There’ll be no time when all lanes are closed. But we know there’re going to be 5 to 15,000 folks going from Lemon Hill, potentially to City Hall and we really want to … encourage people to walk and take the train and bike up the parkway. So, these lane closures are going to help to encourage that,” said Jeannette Brugger with the city’s Office of Complete Streets.
The festival schedule varies from day-to-day and will typically open an hour before scheduled games and close an hour after the last aired game.
Do not expect to watch all 104 games of the tournament in Lemon Hill though, Philadelphia Soccer 2026 has limited the schedule to open the grounds no earlier than 11 a.m. and to close the site no later than midnight.
“We’ve worked very, very closely with the Office of Emergency Management and the Office of Special Events to time the operating hours to ensure minimal impact to the community and maximum opportunity for people to come and enjoy,” DelBene said.
The fan festival perimeters will be around Poplar, Sedgley and Lemon Hill drives, enclosed in an unbroken fence with security screenings for everyone who enters the festival. People who wish to attend the fan fest need to register beforehand with Philly Soccer 2026. The park will have a 15,000 person capacity.
The perimeter will block festival attendees from leaving into the adjacent neighborhoods of Fairmount and Brewerytown after they are done at the site.
There will be no parking options for festival-goers, with the organizers instead urging everyone to take public transportation, walk, cycle and use ride share services to get there.
SEPTA issued its planned World Cup scheduling on Monday, which included adding service to the 32 and 48 bus routes, increasing the frequency to every 15 minutes or less, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Along with that, the Visitor Center’s PHLASH service is adding a new stop at Fairmount and Pennsylvania avenues, near Boathouse Row, from which people can walk up to the park. A new LOVE Park shuttle service from Center City is also being added, picking up around Kelly Drive. A new Indego bike station is also being added near the Abraham Lincoln Monument.
City officials said Lyft and Uber service will be geofenced to keep pickups away from the vicinity of Lemon Hill throughout the festival, with several blocks of the Fairmount and Brewerytown neighborhoods directly next to Lemon Hill also blocked during the festival’s operating hours. Three pick up and drop off zones have been assigned in those neighborhoods. Riders with mobility issues or with wheelchair accessible vehicles can be exempt from the geofencing.
To help deter people from parking in the residential neighborhoods next to the festival, the Philadelphia Parking Authority is issuing new free temporary residential parking permits and visitor day passes to residents who apply on PPAs’s Lemon Hill website, or visit the PPA’s permit office at 35 N. 8th St. In-person applications are also happening at the Farmers Market at Eastern State Penitentiary every Thursday, as well as at Girard Avenue Street Festival on May 16 and at the Park to Broad business meetup on May 20.
Businesses within the area can also apply for up to 10 visitor day passes. PPA Deputy Executive Director Corrinne O’Connor said the wait time on the permits is now up to three business days, after the initial launch of the application site led to a deluge of submissions last week.
“This process is ongoing and rolling and as we work the kinks out while we are going through fan fest, if there are any issues that need to be improved upon, we’re going to be working to improve upon that,” City Councilmember Jeffery Young said during the call.
Any questions or concerns about the impacts of the festival can be emailed to fanfest2026@phila.gov
