ShowHub Highlight: FIFA Fan Festival™
If you haven’t been to FIFA Fan Festival™ at the PNE, do yourself a favour and go. There’s an incredible vibe, music, food, and drinks in an open-air setting.
I went to see Uncle Strut for the first time on Thursday, and there’s a reason this band is getting a lot of buzz. They play guitar-driven original rock with a couple of reworked classic covers mixed in. It’s obvious they really love playing together, and that definitely adds to the enjoyment.
It’s a really interesting mix of local acts and performers from across Canada and around the world. Whoever curated the music deserves a lot of credit. The sound is excellent, there are two stages, and live music is woven throughout the day around the match schedule. Bands play before games, during halftime, and between matches, so there’s almost always something happening.
One stage is in our brand-new amphitheatre, and the Park Stage is easily accessed via the main PNE entrance. For those who have been around awhile, it’s roughly where the old upper stage used to be.
The food and drinks aren’t inexpensive, but they’re certainly not priced as high as you might expect, and there’s an excellent selection of both. The food offerings alone probably number twice what you’d find on a typical day at the PNE.
As for the vibe, it is nothing short of incredible. After Uncle Strut’s first set, it was time for the Canada vs. Qatar match, and the area around the Garden Stage, along with the rest of the grounds, quickly filled with happy Canadian fans clad in red. Canada scored first and the roar from the crowd was thunderous. When the Canadian squad scored again, the party was definitely on.
The atmosphere isn’t just because Canada won, though. People are genuinely happy, and fans from different nations are coming together to have a good time. Mexican supporters packed the viewing areas for their matches. There was a friendly cheer competition between Moroccan and Scottish fans. Millions of Brazilians – well, maybe not millions, but certainly thousands – filled the grounds on Saturday, and they definitely know how to celebrate.
It’s so nice to see Vancouver hosting the world again. We are a cosmopolitan city, and this is when we shine. Expo 86, the 2010 Winter Olympics, and now this.
The FIFA Fan Festival™ falls outside our regular listings coverage as it’s a very large-scale event, but we’d still recommend checking it out. There’s a great mix of local and international music throughout the event, and many of the performers can be found in our artist directory if you’d like to learn more about them.
Do try to get out and enjoy it.