City unveils plan to handle FIFA Fan Festival parking and transportation in Lemon Hill

Lemon Hill residents gathered virtually on Monday night to learn of the city’s plan to manage the thousands of FIFA Fan Festival attendees and road traffic entering their neighborhood this summer.

FIFA Fan Festival, the city’s official 2026 World Cup celebration and watch party, is pitching its tent in the Lemon Hill section of Fairmount Park, from June 11 to July 19. Operating for 39 days straight, the festival will welcome an estimated 15,000 daily attendees, bringing increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic to nearby residential areas, like Fairmount and Brewerytown.

Representatives from the Office of Special Events, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, and the city’s World Cup Host Committee, Philadelphia Soccer 2026, unveiled that large swaths of the neighborhood will need to navigate parking restrictions, road closures, and the city’s disabling of rideshare services, a practice known as “geofencing,” in certain areas.

Neighbors and local organizations have been waiting for months for more information from the city and Philadelphia Soccer 2026 on how the fan festival will impact their daily lives, they said. While tonight’s information gave residents the ability to better plan their June and July transportation plans, some residents still have concerns over parking during the festival, and the legacy of Lemon Hill Park once the event ends.

During the FIFA Fan Festival, Lemon Hill will be effectively inaccessible to all vehicle traffic, and pedestrian traffic in some areas.

Roads like Sedgley, Poplar, and Lemon Hill Drives within the park will be closed from May 26 to July 19 to allow for the construction and operation of the festival. Girard Avenue, Kelly Drive, and Poplar Street will remain open to vehicle traffic.

Additionally, no on-site parking will be available for attendees. Philadelphia Soccer 2026 is urging everyone to take public transportation to the city and Lemon Hill during the fan festival. SEPTA and PHLASH will increase the frequency of buses heading to Lemon Hill, and the city will establish a LOVE Park shuttle service to and from Center City, and an Indego bike-share docking station on-site.

Other than the usual residential and business vehicles in the neighborhood, festival organizers intend to limit additional cars to rideshare vehicles at three designated pickup and drop-off zones.

To deter rideshare vehicles from operating near the festival, the city is working to disable rideshare services along Kelly Drive (including Boathouse Row), Girard Avenue, and several blocks of Fairmount and Brewerytown during the festival. Some areas will be geofenced 24/7, while residential areas will be able to hail rideshare outside of festival operating hours.

“There are exceptions for riders who require a wheelchair-accessible vehicle or disclose mobility issues to your driver,” said Jeannette Brugger, the city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. “If you have a mobility issue and you live within the [residential geofenced area], you will not be subject to this geofence. Your driver will be able to drop you off at your home.”

These policies will be to keep residential areas as decongested as possible. However, residents will need to apply for free temporary parking permits to avoid fines or having vehicles removed from the area. All available information on how to apply for the permit can be found at philapark.org/lemonhill.

PPA advised residents that processing their permit applications will take at least two to three business days, as they have already received more than 5,000 requests for the permit. To check the status of an application, residents can call PPA at 215-683-9730.

During the tournament, PPA will have increased foot and vehicle patrols surveying the neighborhood for illegally parked cars, with up to eight tow trucks ready to remove vehicles.

While many neighbors are excited to welcome thousands of fans to the neighborhood, many still feel their concerns are an afterthought in order to entertain the city’s guests.

“I’m excited about the event, and there are a lot of people in the neighborhood who are excited to welcome the world to Philly,” said Dustin Dove, president of the Fairmount Civic Association. “But, most people are just really upset and confused about parking, and that the timing of this outreach should have been done a while ago.”

Organizations like Fairmount Civic Association, but even more so the Lemon Hill Neighbors Association, have been asking the city to listen to more community feedback and engage in outreach for two years, said Shaun Cerborino, co-lead of Lemon Hill Neighbors.

Monday’s meeting was mostly a rehash of what neighborhood organizations have already shared with residents from discussions with festival organizers, Dove and Cerborino said. This meeting was primarily the first time the city laid out its plan in full to residents, they said.

Now, with less than a month until the first World Cup match kickoff, residents worry their daily lives could be hindered. Charlotte Burns, a Fairmount resident who lives near the festival, is concerned about festival organizers’ use of rideshare geofencing, which she asserts may leave disabled residents with fewer options.

“I would say the meeting was overall helpful, but they still didn’t give a complete answer on geofencing for residents in the area,” Burns said. “They said there would be exceptions for those with mobility issues. But how does that actually work?”

Lemon Hill Neighbors Association is amplifying its neighbors’ parking and mobility concerns, while also trying to recenter the legacy of Lemon Hill once the festival is gone, said Cerborino.

Philadelphia Soccer 2026 has committed to investing millions in Lemon Hill Park once the thousands of fans have trodden its fields and the booths have been removed. Some of the discussed improvements include reseeding the grass, installing new ADA-accessible sidewalks, and rebuilding the picnic pavilion, but Cerborino said residents feel that is not enough.