A visitor looks at displays at the Qatar World Cup Pavilion at the 15th Arab Culture Festival at COEX in Seoul on Sept. 16, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Seoul has been selected as one of six global hosts of the FIFA Fan Festival, a public viewing event during the World Cup that will also feature live performances and other entertainment.
FIFA announced Tuesday that Seoul will be joined by London, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Dubai in hosting satellite fan events during the Nov. 20-Dec. 18 World Cup in Qatar.
The main Fan Festival will take place in Doha, the capital city of the World Cup host country.
“All International FIFA Fan Festival events will offer live match broadcasts from the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as well as various entertainment-driven activities, including performances by popular international DJs, local musicians and artists as well as appearances by FIFA legends,” FIFA said in a statement.
“Selected events will boast 4D immersive audio that will bring the sounds from the matches in Qatar to local events.”
While public screenings of World Cup matches aren’t new, those occasions reached new heights during the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, with Korean supporters, decked out in the team’s primary color of red, hitting the streets in the millions to cheer on their country.
S. Factory in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul, will host the Fan Festival events on days of South Korea’s Group H matches: Nov. 24 against Uruguay, Nov. 28 against Ghana and the night of Dec. 2 against Portugal, with the match kicking off at midnight Dec. 3 (Seoul time).
South Korea will be making their 10th consecutive World Cup appearance and 11th overall. They have made it to the knockout stage twice: reaching the semifinals as co-hosts in 2002 and getting to the round of 16 in South Africa in 2010.
(Yonhap)
