Slow sales for Hastings Park FIFA fan fest, two weeks before World Cup

The FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE is supposed to be a way to be part of the World Cup action, but it appears many are staying on the sidelines.

It’s just two weeks until the World Cup officially kicks off, but many tickets for the paid premium seating at the Hastings Park amphitheatre for the FIFA Fan Festival remain unsold.

A scan of the Ticketleader website on Thursday showed many seats available for the first Saturday of the tournament and many other match days, with the exceptions of the final and matches involving Canada.

On Thursday, CTV News interviewed Jessie Adcock, the FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver Host Committee lead, who remains optimistic about the fan festival being a success, even as the tournament edges closer.

“People are starting to make their summer plans,” Adcock said when assessing the slow sales to date. “I think kids are still in school, and a number of us, we make our plans as we get closer and closer to the end of the school year.”

“We don’t have that concern (that tickets won’t sell well), and so far as the knockouts go, at this stage we don’t know who’s going to be in those knockout matches, so people are waiting to see what’s going to happen as the tournament unfolds.”

While entry to the FIFA Fan Festival at Hastings Park is free, sitting in designated seats at the new amphitheatre costs $44 at the low range, rising to above $100 depending on the day and matches involved.

“I can’t really comment too much on Vancouver’s budget, but I know that the tickets will sell well, according to the patterns of previous World Cups that were hosted in different cities,” Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sports Minister Anne Kang told CTV News on Thursday at her office at the legislature.

With tickets to live matches at BC Place costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars, Adcock says the fan festival will offer the closest thing to getting the kind of atmosphere people will get inside the stadium.

“My pitch would be that this will be the biggest watch party in British Columbia,” Adcock said. “We’ve got so many plans for families, visitors, we’ll be showcasing some of the best of B.C. and our regions, immersive experiences and activations, activities all day long. To watch matches, this is really where people are going to want to do that with a lot of people beside them.”

“Up to 25,000 people a day are going to be watching those matches, and you will not able to get that atmosphere anywhere else.”

The City of Vancouver would not directly answer what the financial consequences would be if many of these fan fest tickets go unsold, but is promising to provide more information on Friday as it updates tournament costs.