Nowhere else has so much of the World Cup

Football fans will be thrilled: Nowhere else has so much football as the Munich Olympic Park. After all, the FIFA World Cup 2006™ will continue for 34 days here. From 6 June to 9 July, the Fan Festival for the FIFA World Cup 2006™ is promising to offer a comprehensively superb programme of events. The heart of the extensive entertainment offered free of charge on a daily basis is the official public viewing. 56 World Cup games will be shown live here on a 60 square metre video screen on the Olympic Lake. “Munich residents and their guests will jointly celebrate a happy football party for five weeks in the Olympic Park. This makes a successful link from today back to 1974, a link that connects the past and the present, the Olympic Stadium and the World Cup stadium in Fröttmaning. The football World Cup will kick off in Munich in 2006. In 1974, the Olympic Stadium and the Park hosted the World Cup Final featuring Germany versus Holland – in which record-breaking forward Gerd Müller’s most important goal won the game for the host nation. To this extent, the Fan Festival in the Olympic Park is certainly also a good omen for the German team,” says the spokesperson for labour and the economy for the Munich City Authority, Dr. Reinhard Wieczorek. No better location could have been found for this festival than the Olympic Park. This has been the home for national and international football for more than three decades. The World Cup-winning team built around Franz Beckenbauer celebrated its second World Cup title in the Olympic Stadium. The chronicles of the park are filled with major global sporting events. And everything started with the largest sporting festival anywhere in the world, the Summer Olympic Games in 1972. “We want to invite thousands of guests to celebrate a gigantic football festival where there will be something for everyone, young or old, fully in line with the traditions of the Olympic Park that has already celebrated so many international sporting festivals with great success throughout its exciting event history,” says Wilfrid Spronk, the CEO of Olympiapark München GmbH. It goes without saying that the same thing applies to the whole of Munich: “Offering a warm welcome is one of the outstanding qualities of Munich. Our objective is to be perfect hosts to the guests who will be coming to the Isar in summer 2006. The city will be receiving its guests in summer 2006 by offering many extra features: Voluntary helpers, support for journalists and expanded capacity in terms of places to stay for travellers with a limited budget. Visitors arriving in Munich, whether at the railway station or the airport, will be welcomed with all the information they need about the city and the various entertainments that have been organised,” adds Dr. Wieczorek. From Haindling to Domingo: Cultural, musical and entertainment programme With – almost literally – a drum roll, the cultural and musical programme of the Fan Festival will be inaugurated on June 6 at 8:30 p.m. It will start with the open-air classical concert “3 Orchestras and Stars” in the Olympic Stadium. The top stars include Placido Domingo and the Söhne Mannheims. However, even before this classical highlight, the musical programme on the event stage in the Olympic Lake will start with the Leningrad Cowboys. On an almost daily basis – excepting the period of the group games from June 10 to 19 – a fireworks display will be held with musical accompaniment. The bands are drawn from almost all of the countries competing in the FIFA World Cup 2006™. Haindling will play for Germany to mark the opening game on June 9. The programme also includes a varied range of stage shows. DJs from Radio Bayern 3 will be hosting the programme and organising the music on selected days. In addition, superb entertainment will also be provided on the event stage at which the companies Coca-Cola, Hyundai, MasterCard and Toshiba will each entertain the Fan Festival visitors with a 30-minute interactive show programme. The Coubertinplatz is ringed by a large number of outlets, for example Karstadt has set up a superstore offering the complete FIFA World Cup 2006™ range of merchandising. Adidas has set up football modules in which anyone can take part, and the final of the Kick-O-Mania table football tournament will also be held during the Fan Festival on June 10. Tourism opportunities await in the Czech Arena organised by the Czech Republic and on the Veneto Region’s stand. Venice is offering a highlight at the outset of the World Cup: On June 9 and 10, visitors will be able to take to the waters of the Olympic Lake in genuine gondolas from Venice! Kids’ world There’ll also be lots for little football fans to enjoy during the Fan Festival in the Olympic Park. With the slogan “A Multicultural World Cup”, the Munich City Youth Association in cooperation with Youth Sport Munich will be organising a large kids' festival in the middle of the Olympic Park. Here, a wide range of games, sports, crafts and events will be put on for children aged between 3 and 13 – free of charge. Many of the items have been specifically planned to enable children with disabilities to take part as well. At the same time, special ideas have been developed to open up a new world of experience for children without disabilities to enable them to get to know and appreciate the abilities of children with disabilities. The Kids’ World Team of the City Youth Association consists of professional event organisers, social service experts, youth outreach workers and enthusiastic selected members from a variety of youth associations. Gastronomy It goes without saying that visitors to the Fan Festival will be able to choose from a wide range of international cuisine. Under the organisation of Haberl Gastronomie/Arena One, the generous provision of outlets distributed all over the park will offer culinary specialities from all over the world and, of course, from Bavaria too. Authentic draught Munich beer will be served by the Association of Munich Breweries (Spaten, Franziskaner, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Münchner Hofbräu, Augustiner and Löwenbräu) at its stands throughout the park. Coca-Cola will also be providing a wide selection of refreshing soft drinks to quench the thirst of the visitors to the Fan Festival. Opening times The Fan Festival of the FIFA World Cup 2006™ will open on June 6 and close on July 9, 2006. It is open daily from 1:00 p.m. onwards. On match days, the Fan Festival will close about 30 minutes after the end of the last broadcast, and at about 11:00 on non-match days. (Timing and programme changes reserved.) Central World Cup locations Munich and the Olympic Park are therefore excellently prepared to offer all World Cup visitors a memorable time. At the same time, the organising teams in Munich have developed exemplary ideas for other cities in Germany. “The organisational concept for the Munich World Cup entertainment programme is based on a few important pillars: Central locations – the Olympic Park, FIFA World Cup stadium, media centre at the trade fair and the City Info at Marienhof (with the areas of tourist information, media information, business information, fan news and gastronomy) – as well as compact venues, extensive information and support for fans. Munich’s idea of a central Fan Festival with a big screen for citizens and guests has been copied in all other World Cup host cities,” observes Dr. Wieczorek.