{"id":340686,"date":"2026-06-18T01:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340686\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T01:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:58:20","slug":"world-cup-tourists-say-the-stockyards-are-like-a-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340686\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup tourists say the Stockyards are \u2018like a movie\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FIFA World Cup was expected to bring roughly 3.8 million people to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and quite a few of them have already found their way over to the Stockyards to get an authentic taste of Texas culture.<\/p>\n

Walking into the National Historical District was like stepping into a movie, Nikola Petrovi\u0107 said Tuesday afternoon. He\u2019s in town from Split, Croatia, and wasn\u2019t left wanting after witnessing the parade of longhorns directed by cowboys on horseback.<\/p>\n

Petrovi\u0107 came to Texas with another soccer fan, Stefano Tolomeo from Milan, Italy. Tolomeo\u2019s country didn\u2019t qualify for the World Cup, so he printed \u201cWorld Cup Tourist\u201d on his Italian jersey. The look was made complete by the pair\u2019s matching cowboy hats.<\/p>\n

From first impression, Petrovi\u0107 said everything is bright and big in Texas.<\/p>\n

\"Japan Japan fans take photos of longhorns as they make their way down East Exchange Avenue at the Fort Worth Stockyards on June 16, 2026. Fans from various teams visited the stockyards to watch the cattle drive for the first time. Elvis Martinez-Cartagena FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM <\/p>\n

\u201cLike from the cars, to the portions, everything, which I\u2019m simply not used to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Petrovi\u0107\u2019s key takeaway from his time in Texas so far is classic cowboy vernacular like \u201cHowdy\u201d and \u201cThank ye,\u201d both of which he pronounces with an extra syllable at the end.<\/p>\n

The only complaint Petrovi\u0107 has had is not being able to walk around with a beer in his hand due to the Texas open container laws.<\/p>\n

Lewis Howchin, from Yeovil, England also learned about Texas laws when he and his buddy took a seat on the songbirds surrounding Deep Ellum\u2019s The Traveling Man sculpture. A police officer came by to ward them off.<\/p>\n

After experiencing the Dallas night scene, Howchin said he was looking forward to taking a turn into Billy Bob\u2019s for some line dancing. He packed his cowboy-patterned button up specifically for his day trip to Fort Worth. A deal too good to pass up, Howchin bought a cowboy hat that came with a free beer while exploring the Stockyards.<\/p>\n

\"FIFA FIFA fans crowd East Exchange Avenue at the Fort Worth Stockyards on June 16, 2026. Texas is hosting a total of 16 FIFA World Cup matches. Elvis Martinez-Cartagena FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM <\/p>\n

A native of the Netherlands and loyal to his team, Adeie Koert said he wouldn\u2019t be purchasing a cowboy hat unless it was Dutch orange.<\/p>\n

Another die-hard Dutch fan, Michiel Van Wijk, came from Utrecht, Netherlands, to accompany the Dutch Orange bus<\/a> across the United States. Van Wijk serves on the Dutch Orange Bus Association board.<\/p>\n

In 2004, a group of friends got the idea to paint a 1980 bus bright orange, put a bar in it and drive the Dutch Orange Bus to Portugal for the Euro Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was to leave it there, but then it was, it was a hit, actually, and they said, well, let\u2019s, let\u2019s take it back and take it for another tournament, and another one, another one, another one, another one,\u201d Van Wijk said. \u201cSo it started off as a joke, but now it\u2019s like a global thing, and we take pride in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Wijk has traveled all over the world with the vibrant automotive, but he has been especially heart warmed in Texas at the mammoth crowd in Arlington<\/a> before the June 14 game and the enthusiastic drivers who honk and cheer on the interstates.<\/p>\n

Texans have proven to be generous and welcoming, Van Wijk said.<\/p>\n

In order to have a \u201cproper adventure,\u201d Englishman Tom Williams is gallivanting all across the U.S. Williams flew over to New York City and stayed there a few days before making his way to Texas.<\/p>\n

Next, he\u2019ll head to Memphis and Nashville, then Boston and back again to New York before going back to his hometown of Shrewsbury, England.<\/p>\n

So far, the slogan \u201ceverything is bigger in Texas\u201d has rung true, Williams said. The only exception is the beer prices, which he was glad about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe literally just got out the taxi and walked down here [to the Stockyards], but it\u2019s very nice so far,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThank you for welcoming us to your town, your house, your city.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 11:21 AM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Rachel Royster<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Rachel Royster is a news and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, specifically focused on Tarrant County. She joined the newsroom after interning at the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald and Capital Community News in DC. A Houston native and Baylor grad, Rachel enjoys traveling, reading and being outside. She welcomes any and all news tips to her email.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FIFA World Cup was expected to bring roughly 3.8 million people to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-340686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}