Fan Fest

Missed out on a ticket for your country’s big game? Not enough money to hire a box for you and your friends? How would you still like to follow the big match with fans from around the world in a stadium atmosphere? If you can answer “yes” to one of these questions, then public viewing is the perfect way for you to enjoy the world’s greatest football event – and for free! For the first time ever at a FIFA World Cup™, all of the host cities (in Germany’s case 12) will be organising official public viewings along with a supporting programme of music, shows and cultural events – the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ Fan Fest.

Experience the FIFA World Cup even without a ticket

Public viewing events came to genuine prominence for the first time at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan. Some 2.8 billion people around the world followed the 64 games in public squares, halls and bars. The incredible sight of a sea of 200,000 South Korean fans following their team on the big screens in Seoul will live long in the memory. In Germany too, up to 30,000 fans gathered in some places to watch the live broadcasts. This year, it is expected that around 30 per cent of the German population will follow the games via public viewing – hopefully joined by plenty of foreign guests.

All of the conditions have been put in place to create unique and amicable public viewing events for all fans. For the first time in FIFA World Cup history, FIFA, the Organising Committee and the Host Cities have developed a joint concept to allow fans to experience the month-long excitement of the FIFA World Cup even without a ticket. No other tournament in history has featured a central square in every FIFA World Cup Host City where you can follow every game live and enjoy a comprehensive support programme every day. The aim is to make the Fan Fest site a second FIFA World Cup stadium. That is where you come in!

Fan embassies – information points for you

The official organisers of the Fan Fests in the Host Cities will not be FIFA or the Organising Committee – even if the official tournament sponsors are represented for refinancing reasons – but the cities themselves or agencies contracted by them. Apart from the beer of Official Partner Anheuser Busch, local brews will also be available. All games will be broadcast live by German free-to-air channels ARD, ZDF and RTL. Link-ups are also planned with other Fan Fests. However, there will be no repeat or delayed broadcasts of afternoon games, for example.

A central component of the Fan Fests in the twelve FIFA World Cup Host Cities will be the use of fan embassies as crucial information points for all fans. These will provide the answers to all of your possible questions – and some impossible ones – and all in your native language. You will also find a comprehensive range of other information on the city, transport arrangements and the support programme for the twelve Fan Fests in the Host Cities. Even if you can not make it to one of the Fan Fests, we are sure you will still be following the FIFA World Cup games on big screens, television or radio in beer gardens, pubs and homes around the world.

· Fan Fests per city:

· Berlin

· Dortmund

· Frankfurt

· Gelsenkirchen

· Hamburg

· Hanover

· Kaiserslautern

· Cologne

· Leipzig

· Munich

· Nuremberg