Roads directly near the FIFA Fan Festival in Lemon Hill are now officially closed for the remainder of the 2026 World Cup.
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The city closed down roads on Tuesday as crews assembled the fan festival stages and infrastructure that will soon welcome up to an estimated15,000 fans daily from June 11 to July 19.
The affected roads are mostly inside East Fairmount Park, including Sedgley, Poplar, and Lemon Hill Drives, which lead right up to the festival. Main roads surrounding the festival, like Kelly Drive and Girard Avenue, remain open to vehicle traffic.
Police blocked off entrances to the park and began towing vehicles still parked on the Lemon Hill streets there Tuesday morning.
The Benjamin Franklin Parkway will also have its outer lanes closed through Labor Day to condense traffic, discouraging vehicles from driving near the festival, officials said. For the July 4 concert on the Parkway, road closures will switch from the outer lanes to the inner lanes 10 days before and after the concert to allow for concert preparation and breakdown.
While the roads are closed during the festival, pedestrians and festival staff will be able to move through the park safely without cars, festival officials said. The festival will also have no on-site parking, with the surrounding neighborhoods implementing permit parking-only to dissuade fans from dumping their cars in the park and communities for hours.
Philadelphia Parking Authority will increase enforcement patrols with up to eight tow trucks on standby at any given time. Residents in the neighborhood can apply for a free special event parking permit that will allow them to continue parking in their neighborhood during the festival.
Rideshare apps will also be disabled within the festival and in the immediate surrounding areas to force riders to get dropped off and picked up outside of the more congested areas of the festival. Local residents who require rideshare services due to mobility issues will be able to request a wheelchair accessible ride through the app, regardless of the rideshare “geofence.”