{"id":149737,"date":"2026-03-27T04:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149737\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:04:07","slug":"bill-would-allow-philadelphia-bars-to-stay-open-until-4-a-m-during-fifa-world-cup-america-250-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149737\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill would allow Philadelphia bars to stay open until 4 a.m. during FIFA World Cup, America 250 celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last call at bars and restaurants could get even later this summer as Philadelphia hosts America 250 events, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/fifa-cancels-philadelphia-hotel-rooms\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FIFA World Cup matches<\/a> and MLB All-Star festivities.<\/p>\n<p>Hilltown Tavern in Fairmount hosted a packed bar for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/phillies-vs-rangers-score-opening-day-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Phillies home opener<\/a> Thursday. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We got lucky! Usually, Opening Day is cold and rainy. So 78 degrees on Opening Day, we&#8217;ll take it!&#8221; bartender Mike Corrigan said.<\/p>\n<p>Corrigan added they&#8217;re expecting business to stay busy while the city hosts America 250 events in June and July.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s literally four blocks away \u2014 the fan center. We&#8217;re already going to be busy with the Fourth of July and all the 250th anniversary stuff,&#8221; Corrigan said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.palegis.us\/legislation\/bills\/2025\/sb1218\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1218<\/a> would allow bars, restaurants and hotels to stay open two hours after the typical closing time. For Hilltown, that means 4 a.m. on the weekends.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re anticipating applying for the permit. It would be foolish of us not to take advantage of the opportunity,&#8221; Corrigan said.<\/p>\n<p>Eligible establishments would have to apply, and pay a $500 application fee. The late-night extension is for the timeframe between June 11 and July 20.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;ll be fun. I think a lot of people will take the opportunity and will stay there. I think they&#8217;ll get some more money. I think I would do it,&#8221; said Lyndsay Cox, who lives in Fairmount.<\/p>\n<p>So does Alex Harral: &#8220;It&#8217;s not going to bother me too much but it&#8217;s way passed my bed time, so I will be in bed way earlier than 4.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If this all sounds familiar, Philadelphia has done this before. Ten years ago, bars, restaurants and hotels \u2014 who applied \u2014 could also stay open until 4 a.m., while the city hosted the Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There were dozens of restaurants, hotels, and bars that took advantage of it. So, you know, we look forward to seeing the same thing happening now,&#8221; Ben Fileccia, with the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, said.<\/p>\n<p>The Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association said it&#8217;s more than just an economic boost for local businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we&#8217;re hosting a half a million people from all over the world that aren&#8217;t necessarily on eastern standard time,&#8221; Fileccia said. &#8220;So we want to make sure when these guests, when these folks that are visiting Philadelphia want to continue to celebrate with their friends, that they&#8217;re doing it at places that are licensed, places that are used to taking care of guests, that have ramp-certified staff, and can identify visibly intoxicated patrons. You know, we want our guests to be in safe areas, and that&#8217;s what this bill allows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was asked about the matter on Thursday: &#8220;I think there&#8217;s one more technical step that has to happen in the Senate. I expect that to happen soon, and when it hits my desk, I&#8217;ll sign it into law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last call at bars and restaurants could get even later this summer as Philadelphia hosts America 250 events,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[72,33,28,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-149737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-food-amp-drink","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}