In the span of just 11 days, over 20,000 people gathered on the front lawn of Lexington’s Visitors Center. Fans sporting jerseys and flags set up dozens of picnic blankets and camping chairs, covering nearly every inch of grass facing two jumbotron screens. As children played soccer, adults visited the beer garden, and business owners chatted with customers, the air was periodically filled with groans and cheers — a penalty delivered, a goal scored. The occasion: Lexington’s very own FIFA World Cup watch party.
“It was really really packed. Good energy though: every time you’d hear a scream because someone scored, people would stop — if they were in line for beer, would turn around and look up at the big screen. The vibe was really really fun,” Melissa Whitehead, a Lexington resident and soccer fan, said.
From June 16-26, Lexington hosted free daily viewings of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The town installed jumbotrons by the Visitors Center, set up tents for organizations, and ran scavenger hunts and giveaways with local businesses.
The soccer celebrations attracted over 20,000 people, including 6,000 in one day during an intense USA vs. Australia match. The event was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism and local tourism funds, with support from the Lexington United Soccer Club and Craft Food Halls. The event also had the help of over 60 volunteers who spent 290 hours greeting visitors, answering questions, taking attendance, staffing the VIP area, and overseeing the crowd in case of an emergency. Members of Grace Chapel ran a fun zone for kids on June 19, 20, and 21.
“Kids don’t have a 90-minute attention span for soccer, so to have something that kids could just play in and with, so that parents could enjoy the game, felt really good,” Akash Ahuja, the primary volunteer coordinator and Director of High School Ministry at Grace Chapel, said. Ahuja estimated that over 100 kids frequented the fun zone’s bouncy house and face-painting station.
Many audience members felt that the event was well organized and provided an immersive World Cup experience.
“We loved all the food trucks that were there; we thought the sound quality was good; the TV screen was very good quality,” Jade Do, a Lexington resident whose family attended the event, said.
Lexington residents appreciated the event’s proximity to home, noting the convenience of being able to attend a watch party right down the street that supplied food, beer, and even pickup soccer games. Though the watch parties were not as busy as live matches happening in Foxborough, some residents who attended both felt that the audiences’ energies were comparable.
“Obviously being in the stadium was a much bigger scale, but that same joyful enthusiasm was present in the gatherings in Lexington Center,” Kate Babineau, a resident who watched matches in both Boston and Lexington, said. “There was a lot of camaraderie and excitement for the game.”
The on-site tents were a success for local nonprofits and businesses, which paid $75-100 a day to occupy one of ten stalls. Business owners enjoyed having the chance to mingle with the town and tell visitors about their work.
“I’ve had a lot of exposure,” Lisa Cassidy, the founder of performance jewelry brand Kaden & Kai, said. “A lot of people walked up and asked what I was working on, and I spoke with other designers, other retail owners … about the possibility of partnering.”
Though the watch party was cancelled on a few days due to poor weather conditions, the event as a whole brought much of the town together. People of different generations and nationalities gathered on the Visitors Center’s lawn, greeting friends, neighbors, and even strangers cheering for opposing teams.
“Although we are supporting Sweden, there are a lot of Japanese people, and we love to sit beside each other and we talk to each other,” Mahira Mukhtarova, a recent immigrant to Lexington, said on the day of the Japan vs. Sweden match. “I love that I feel like I belong to this town,” Mukhtarova added.
The watch parties were a reminder of both the town’s multiculturalism and the commonalities that exist among a diverse group of people. Beyond Lexington, as the U.S. welcomed visitors from across the globe, its residents were hospitable and eager to bond over a shared love for the game, despite a strained political backdrop.
“We have a lot of disagreements in this country, but when a bunch of visitors come in, you put those disagreements aside, and we want to just show them a good time,” Shomit Sengupta, a Lexington resident and soccer fan, said.
Other than uniting dedicated sports fans, the watch parties in Lexington served as an opportunity for the town to strengthen its community through a fun, family-friendly, and free event. Several attendees told the LexObserver that they hoped for the town to host similar events in the future.
“We all universally felt like, “This is so cool.” And now that we know Lexington can do something like this, I hope it continues,” Babineau said.