- For those that don't have tickets to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but are in Russia, FIFA's Fan Fest zones provide a fun place to watch matches with fans from all over the world.
- The Fan Fest zones have a ton of games, activities, swag, and giant screens to watch the games.
- I recently visited one of the biggest Fan Fest zones, at Moscow’s Vorobyovy Gory, where tons of fans partied all day while watching the World Cup matches.
Every four years, the world comes together for a festival of football (soccer for Americans) that promises to make us forget all about the world’s troubles for a few weeks and unite in our collective humanity.
That spirit of global togetherness is on display in pubs and city squares all over the world during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a tournament that brings together the finest footballers on the planet.
But nowhere is it more evident than at FIFA’s official Fan Fests in this year’s World Cup host country of Russia.
For those that don’t have a ticket to the games, Russia’s 11 Fan Fest sites, spread across the country, promise to be a place where fans can join together and share in each game’s triumphs.
With massive screens, entertainment, and activities, the Fan Fests are like the world’s biggest sports bars for the duration of the tournament, which goes from June 14 to July 15.
One of the biggest Fan Fest sites this year is at Moscow’s Vorobyovy Gory, a park overlooking the city and Luzhniki Stadium. It holds a whopping 25,000 people at peak capacity.
I recently went to check out the fun while visiting Russia for this year’s World Cup. Here’s what it was like:
Ever since the 2006 World Cup in Germany, FIFA has set up official Fan Fest zones for visiting fans and citizens of the host country to watch World Cup games together. To get to the one in Moscow, you have to walk past Luzhniki Stadium, Russia's national stadium and one of the focal points of the tournament.
It's about a 30-minute walk from Luzhniki. You have to cross the Moskva River, which passes through central Moscow. When I went on a Monday afternoon, it was bright, sunny, and warm.
The Fan Fest is technically in Vorobyovy Gory, a park that overlooks Moscow. Literally meaning Sparrow Hills, it's one of the highest points in the city. It seemed to me a bit like Moscow's Central Park.
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