Vancouver's free FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE to welcome 25,000+ attendees daily
The $184-million amphitheatre will have 6,000 seats covered by the roof, VIP suites, an overflow open-air grassy area in the rear for up to 4,000 additional spectators in an informal standing or sitting configuration, and permanent purpose-built features and amenities, including a major stage, video screens, back-of-house production spaces, and concessions.
The amphitheatre was planned long before Vancouver began bidding for the FIFA World Cup, as a project to revitalize the PNE’s entertainment facilities, and it also received final approval before Vancouver was named a host city. Construction on the amphitheatre began in May 2024, and it is scheduled to reach completion in May 2026 — just before the tournament begins. The venue will gain its long-term naming rights sponsor name, Freedom Mobile Arch, after the tournament.
Hastings Racecourse during the 2025 PNE Fair, with the new PNE amphitheatre construction in the background. (Kenneth Chan)
August 2025 construction progress on Freedom Mobile Arch, the new PNE amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture)
There are no precise details about the Vancouver FIFA Fan Festival at this time, but with a $20-million operating and programming budget, it will be the most elaborate public event staged in the city since the Live City Yaletown and Live City Downtown fan festivals during the 2010 Winter Olympics. A comparatively small-scale FIFA Fan Festival with a budget of only $1 million was also held for a month-long period in downtown Vancouver for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Vancouver fan festival for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be open throughout the 39-day-long tournament period from June 11 to July 19, 2025 — coinciding with the opening match in Mexico City, and the championship final match in New York/New Jersey.
Following the longstanding FIFA Fan Festival tradition, access to the site will not require the purchase of an admission ticket, but there will be ticketed opportunities for those seeking additional premium experiences and packages.
Last week, Jessie Adcock, the lead for FIFA’s local host organizing committee under the City of Vancouver, shared that the fan festival will have a capacity for at least 25,000 people per day.
In contrast, the 15-day-long PNE Fair in 2025 saw a total attendance of over 612,000 people or an average daily attendance of nearly 41,000.
For the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, there was just one official FIFA Fan Festival, given the small geographic size of the host nation. The 36-acre Doha festival site had a capacity for 40,000 attendees at any given time, and averaged 70,000 visitors per day. By the end of the tournament, it recorded a cumulative attendance of 1.8 million.
2022 FIFA World Cup Fan Festival in Doha, Qatar. (FIFA)
2022 FIFA World Cup Fan Festival in Doha, Qatar. (FIFA)
The Vancouver fan festival is expected to spill out well beyond the footprint of the amphitheatre and into the surrounding PNE fairgrounds, but it is unclear what the precise extent will be at this time.
However, it is known that Playland amusement park will continue its regular operating season in June and July 2026, running separately but in parallel with the FIFA Fan Festival. As well, the PNE Fair will take place just one month after the FIFA Fan Festival concludes, during its regular season leading up to Labour Day, from Aug. 22 to Sept. 7, 2026.
Expect a major live concert and performance lineup
Previous procurement documents for an event production contractor indicated that, in addition to the live match screenings, there would also be live entertainment, recreational and cultural programming, commercial and sponsorship activations, hospitality offerings, food and beverage activations, merchandise sales, and other activities and programming.
Two highly experienced companies have been contracted to organize and produce the fan festival: Brand Live Management Group and Inventa. Brand Live organizes major events such as the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks festival and Canada Day celebrations at Canada Place, and has previously produced other prominent events, including the Squamish Valley Music Festival, Skookum Festival, and street parties for the BC Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps. Inventa is the same experiential marketing agency that delivered the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay across Canada and produced major sponsor pavilions and activations during the Games, including the Coca-Cola Happiness House pavilion at Live City Yaletown.
Vancouver’s recently updated official FIFA World Cup website notes that when there are no matches to stage live screenings, there will be live concerts featuring Canadian and global talent, electronic beats, and iconic headliners. The lineup for the amphitheatre’s first-ever performances will be announced closer to the event.
“We’re going to have absolutely the best of B.C. on showcase. We’re going to be able to see any match we want from any point in any venue. This beautiful branding behind me will come alive throughout the fan festival and of course that beautiful new amphitheater,” said Adcock.
“That amphitheatre and the decision to develop and reimagine that site preceded the award of FIFA to the City of Vancouver, but we are absolutely honoured to be the first to be able to showcase it on what will be a global stage. That stunning backdrop of the Burrard Inlet, the North Shore Mountains, that is sure to become one of the venues that is globally recognized at any given moment and of course that’ll bring more economic potential to our province as well.”
Jessie Adcock, lead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup local host organizing committee for the City of Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)
May 2024 artistic rendering of the new PNE Amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture/PNE)
May 2024 artistic rendering of the new PNE Amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture/PNE)
Artistic rendering of the new PNE Amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture/PNE)
To bring fans to Hastings Park over the duration of the fan festival, it is anticipated that TransLink will run special shuttle bus services along Renfrew Street — similar to the special PNE Fair shuttle bus linking SkyTrain’s 29th Avenue Station and Renfrew Station with the Pacific Coliseum entrance into the fairgrounds.
BC Place Stadium will host a total of seven matches, with the last match held in Vancouver being the round-of-16 match on July 6.
As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized, there will be extensive temporary road closures in and near the downtown Vancouver peninsula to safely support BC Place Stadium’s operations, during both non-match and match days over the five-week-long tournament period. This includes an almost 3 km, east-west car-free, pedestrian-only route and fan zone for spectators along Pacific Street, Pacific Boulevard, and Quebec Street between the Canada Line’s Yaletown-Roundhouse Station and the Expo Line’s Main Street-Science World Station.
Live City Yaletown at David Lam Park during the 2010 Winter Olympics. (Alfred Shum/Flickr)
Live City Yaletown at David Lam Park during the 2010 Winter Olympics. (Alfred Shum/Flickr)
Vancouver 2010 Olympics’ Live City Yaletown festival at David Lam Park. (Inventa)
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