Two fan-focused World Cup party zones—KC House and FIFA Fan Fest—have been created by Populus, a global architecture and design firm based in Kansas City. The experiences have been coined as “Kansas City’s front porch to the world.”
KC House, in the former Swanson’s/Forever 21 building on the Plaza (111 Nichols Road, KCMO), has been under development since early April with plans to open by June 11. It will be an invitation-only spot, operating as the primary hospitality venue for global leaders, civic stakeholders and business partners. It will feature a rooftop outdoor space with jazz and acoustic performances.
Fan Fest is a free event with space for 25,000 people on the south lawn of the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Running from June 11 through July 11, the massive World Cup experience will have themed weekly programming, offering live match screenings and musical acts like Tech N9ne and The Chainsmokers. There will be a 65-foot-tall KC Heart symbol archway, a 45-foot-by-25-foot main video board (plus additional screens), two stages and local food vendors.
“Each one of these programming events at the Fan Fest is just a moment in time,” says Bobby Sloan, a principal and senior event manager for Populous. “That’s what stays with everybody long after the event is over. It can stick with people for a lifetime, whether it’s a father-son moment or a family moment or you’re just hanging out with your buddies. In five years or 10 years, long after the Fan Fest is gone, those memories stay with people.”
From the beginning of their design work in August 2024, Sloan says Populous wanted to make sure that Kansas City was properly represented. “When we started to design in earnest, we started off with the positioning session,” he says. “One of the key themes was how to get all that Kansas City ease and comfort and hospitality to come to life through Fan Fest.”
Fan Fest isn’t just for soccer fans. “It’s also for somebody that wants to come out, be in the community and experience the energy of the World Cup,” Sloan says. “The design is about how we look at the tournament holistically, across the vertical and horizontal nature of fandom.”
Sloan says the design is meant to be “kind of fun and playful,” and that shows through. People talk about Instagram moments, and selfie moments, and designers sometimes purposely design with that in mind, Sloan says.
“‘Instagramable moments’ is kind of a buzz word, but I wouldn’t say we necessarily curate anything with just that in mind,” he says. “If we do it right, and plan it out correctly, those moments come to life in multiple areas. The heart archway is going to be the main one as people enter into the site. But there’ll also be other nuggets around the site.”
What does Sloan want people to think of Fan Fest? “I think when people start using words like special, memorable, amazing, awesome, ‘wow, how did they do this?’—those are the things that start to give me goosebumps,” he says.
