Long Beach will let cyclists, pedestrians, roller-skaters and families roam major downtown streets on July 19 while it’s showing the World Cup championship match at a nearby park.
It’s the culmination of a string of free watch parties. To mark the occasion, Long Beach is combining it with its well-attended Beach Streets open streets festival.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. that Sunday, the city will shut down nearly four miles of roadway normally used by cars. It includes Broadway in the Bluff Park neighborhood, Cherry Avenue up to Fourth Street and Pine Avenue between Ninth and First streets.
Residents are invited to bring their favorite non-motorized methods of transportation, or simply walk the route, to explore four different hubs featuring their own blend of live music, a kid zone and food trucks.
And at Bixby Park, the city will be showing the World Cup final match on a large screen.
It will likely be the city’s biggest watch party yet. Long Beach has been experimenting with them since June 11, when it shut down Pine Avenue between Third Street and Broadway for a continuous screening of games during the group stage of the World Cup.
Through Thursday, more than 34,000 people attended the Pine Avenue celebration, city spokesperson Laath Martin wrote in an email.
More watch parties for the quarter-finals will start up again on July 6 at various parks throughout the city — one in each city council district. You can find a full schedule of the watch parties here or by scrolling below.
Each watch party will have group activities for children and attendees are encouraged to dress in their favorite soccer team’s attire and bring blankets, chairs and any snacks they want. These viewings, though, are supposed to be smaller. They are intended to attract fewer than 1,000 attendees each because if the watch parties exceed that cap, it would “trigger additional public viewing licensing requirements” purchased through FIFA, City Manager Tom Modica wrote in a memo to the City Council on June 16.
City officials billed the series of watch parties as a practice run for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, when they also plan to bring the games to various neighborhoods by setting up big screens.
The city recently budgeted $800,000 to put on the World Cup events, and the Beach Streets plan is being paid for through a $378,560 grant from L.A. Metro and $15,000 from the Port of Long Beach.
You can stay up to date on the plans at longbeach.gov/beachstreets. See the schedule of upcoming watch parties below.
| Park | Date | Time | Tournament Stage |
| El Dorado Park | Monday, July 6 | 5 p.m. | Quarter-finals |
| MLK Park | Thursday, July 9 | 1 p.m. | Quarter-finals |
| Admiral Kidd Park | Friday, July 10 | Noon | Quarter-finals |
| Heartwell Park | Saturday, July 11 | 6 p.m. | Quarter-finals |
| Recreation Park | Tuesday, July 14 | Noon | Semi-finals |
| Scherer Park | Wednesday, July 15 | Noon | Semi-finals |
| Houghton Park | Saturday, July 18 | 2 p.m. | Third-place playoff |
| Bixby Park | Sunday, July 19 | 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Final |