NEW YORK (AP) – The New York and New Jersey World Cup host committee has officially canceled its planned fan festival, which was set to take place at Liberty State Park in Jersey City. This decision comes as a significant alteration to the region's preparations for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, which will see its final match held on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
The fan festival, referred to as FanFest, was initially announced in February 2025 by Tammy Murphy, the chair of the New York/New Jersey host committee and the wife of former New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. The festival was intended to celebrate all 104 matches of the tournament, which is scheduled to begin on June 11. However, in a statement released on Friday, the committee revealed that plans for the weekslong festival have been scrapped.
In lieu of the canceled FanFest, the committee indicated that an "expanded network of fan zones and community celebrations" will be established across 21 counties in New Jersey. These initiatives will serve as the foundation for the region's official fan engagement program. Following this announcement, Mikie Sherrill, who succeeded Phil Murphy as governor, launched a $5 million initiative aimed at funding various community World Cup celebrations throughout New Jersey.
Tickets for the FanFest had been made available for purchase in December, creating anticipation among soccer fans. However, alongside the cancellation of the Jersey City festival, plans for a similar event in New York City's Corona Park in Queens were also not realized. Instead, the organizers have shifted their focus to host a FanFest at the U.S. Tennis Association's Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens from June 17 to June 28, and a fan village is scheduled to be set up at Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center from July 4 to July 19.
Fan fests featuring large video screens have become an integral part of World Cup events since 2006, providing fans an interactive experience and communal atmosphere to enjoy matches together. This year, however, FIFA is taking on the role of logistics management, which is a departure from the practices of previous tournaments where local organizing committees had a more hands-on approach to the arrangement of such events. As a result, the host committees now face limitations concerning sponsorship agreements in categories not already reserved by FIFA, impacting their ability to organize fan activities.
As anticipation builds for the FIFA World Cup, the organizers emphasize that while the large-scale fan festival has been canceled, fans will still have ample opportunities to engage with the tournament through diverse community initiatives and fan zones that will spread throughout the New Jersey area.
