{"id":233821,"date":"2026-07-02T15:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/233821\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:31:06","slug":"world-cup-fan-zone-kicks-off-this-weekend-in-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/233821\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Fan Zone kicks off this weekend in Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The World Cup Fan Zone in Reading kicks off Friday, featuring an outdoor block party downtown and indoor broadcasts of games.<\/p>\n<p>The weekend\u2019s festivities get underway Friday at 11 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Following the ceremony, the Fan Zone will open for a series of free, family-friendly events featuring broadcasts of World Cup matches on 40-foot screens inside Reading Arena (Santander Arena) and a block party in the 500, 600 and 700 blocks of Penn Street. Fans can enjoy a variety of local food vendors, restaurants, specialty retailers and community businesses.<\/p>\n<p>With an extreme heat advisory in effect this weekend, officials are encouraging fans to take advantage of the air-conditioned arena while enjoying live match coverage and programming.<\/p>\n<p>Admission to the Fan Zone is free, and advance registration is encouraged.<\/p>\n<p>For additional event information and registration, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.experienceberks.com\/world-cup-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ExperienceBerks.com\/WorldCupFanZone<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The event runs Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and features:<\/p>\n<p>Friday<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Australia vs. Egypt, 2 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Argentina vs. Cabo Verde, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Music by Go Go Gadget<\/p>\n<p>Saturday<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Canada vs. Morocco, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Paraguay vs. France, 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Music by Main Squeeze<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 3v3 Anywhere inflatable street soccer activation and youth activities<\/p>\n<p>The Fan Zone will also be held July 18 and 19 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>July 18<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Bronze Final,\u00a0 5 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 3v3 Anywhere inflatable street soccer activation<\/p>\n<p>July 19<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 World Cup Final, 3 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Music by Sugar Ray and Ax &amp; The Hatchetmen<\/p>\n<p>Officials also announced the following road closures and parking restrictions during the events:<\/p>\n<p>Road closures<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Penn Street between Fifth and Eighth streets<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Cherry Street between Sixth and Eighth streets<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Sixth Street between Cherry and Court streets<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Seventh Street between Cherry and Penn streets<\/p>\n<p>Parking will not be allowed on Eighth Street between Cherry and Court streets, but traffic will remain open.<\/p>\n<p>Street closures will begin in phases after 5 a.m. on July 3 and July 18, with full closures in place by 9 a.m. The closures will remain in effect through each event weekend before reopening about 11 p.m. on July 4 and July 19.<\/p>\n<p>Free public parking will be available at the following locations on July 3 at 8 a.m. through July 4 at 10 p.m., and July 18 at 8 a.m. through July 19 at 10 p.m.:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 DoubleTree Hotel Garage , 750 Court St.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 South Penn Garage, 635 Franklin St.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Reed &amp; Court Garage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World Cup Fan Zone in Reading kicks off Friday, featuring an outdoor block party downtown and indoor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100985,128,130,129,100984],"class_list":["post-233821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-family-friendly-events-featuring-broadcasts-begins-july-3","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-series-of-free"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233821","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=233821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}