The FIFA Fan Festival in Houston will attract visitors from across the globe over the next month as fans from seven different countries descend upon the Bayou City. But it appears as though Fan Festival organizers could use a quick geography lesson before officially welcoming visitors on Thursday.
Houston’s World Cup Host Committee welcomed an assortment of invited guests to a “soft opening” of the Fan Festival on Tuesday night, where those in attendance enjoyed a walk-through of the Fan Festival grounds. The soft opening went off without a hitch, except for one unfortunate error caught on a welcome sign near the front of the Fan Festival.
Grizzy’s Hood News, a Houston-based new outlet, shared a photo of one of the digital screens at the Fan Festival, adorned with the message “Welcome to Texas.” A flag sat to the right of the welcome message, though it wasn’t the flag of the Lone Star State. Instead, the video board featured the flag of Chile, a nation whose capital sits 4,600 miles south of Houston.
Texas and Chile’s flags are rather similar. It’s easy to get them mixed up, and the untrained eye might not catch the error at first glance. But at least one attendee noticed Tuesday, much to the chagrin of both the photographer and commenters on Facebook.
“Someone definitely has some explaining to do. Houston hosts a FIFA Fan Fest and somehow Chile clocks in for the shift instead of Texas,” Wil Cervantes wrote Wednesday. “Somewhere a graphic designer is sweating, an intern is updating their resume, and a Texan is reaching for their cowboy hat in disbelief.
“Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the wrong flag on the big screen.”
The Houston Host Committee said the issue has since been corrected, adding, “We’re happy to report that it has been fixed.”
The flag mix-up will likely peeve the geography nerds in Houston and online. Those who can move past the oversight will likely be delighted by the rest of what the FIFA Fan Festival offers.
The Fan Festival—open from Thursday through the World Cup Final on July 19—features a massive, shaded watch-party area with three large screens, and more than 20 different Houston vendors will offer food and drinks for purchase both in outdoor food trucks and inside the Fan Festival Food Hall. The Fan Festival also includes a World Cup shop, a full-sized pitch for youth soccer and other assorted activities for kids, and festival organizers have installed mist machines, free sunscreen dispensers and other measures to beat the Houston heat.
Houston will host seven World Cup matches at Reliant Stadium beginning Sunday, July 4. But the real party in the Bayou City will be at the Fan Festival in East Downtown (EaDo), where event organizers hope to showcase the best of Houston on a global stage.