An action sports festival that’s drawn large crowds the last two years at Celebration Square in Mississauga’s downtown core will be moved this summer so FIFA World Cup 2026 matches can be shown on the big screens at the popular outdoor venue.
The Jackalope Action Sports Festival, a Montreal-based exhibition of skateboarding, bouldering (rock climbing), breaking (breakdancing) and more that tours North America throughout the year, is slated to return to the square for its third consecutive summer this July 10-12 — those dates coinciding with World Cup quarter-final action.
The three-day sports event will still be in town those dates, but City of Mississauga senior staff are recommending it be relocated to a yet-to-be-determined spot to allow for the screening of some five dozen World Cup soccer matches at Celebration Square.
Staff said Jackalope organizers have agreed to relocate the festival “to an alternative site within the downtown, ensuring Celebration Square remains available for World Cup programming.”
The five-week FIFA event, held every four years, runs June 11 to July 19 this year and is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Games in Canada will be played in Toronto and Vancouver.
Though the Jackalope festival runs for only three days, its “footprint and operational requirements take over Mississauga Celebration Square for 14 days,” staff said in a report to be discussed at next Wednesday’s general committee meeting.
Falling in that two-week period are World Cup Round of 16 matches leading up to the Jackalope festival and beyond that, when festival organizers would be deconstructing equipment in the days following the event, the World Cup semi-finals and final.
Moving the action sports event will allow the city to show an additional 14 World Cup matches on the screens at Celebration Square. In total, city officials plan to screen 62 contests at the venue over the course of the 38-day premier international soccer tournament.
City staff are pushing for the relocation of Jackalope as the World Cup “is expected to generate significant public interest” and Celebration Square “has a long record of successfully hosting public viewings of major international sporting tournaments, including previous FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro Cup events.”
Under the city’s anticipated rights agreement with FIFA to allow it to show 2026 World Cup matches on the Celebration Square screens, festivals cannot be held there at the same time “as they typically include sponsorship arrangements, vendor branding and other commercial elements,” staff said in the report.
Other festivals scheduled to take place at Celebration Square during World Cup action will remain at that venue, with the city working its soccer programming on the large screens around those events.
City council must still officially give the green light to staff’s plan to move the Jackalope festival to allow for World Cup programming at the square.
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