Philadelphia built a free, 39-day World Cup festival serving more than 425,000 fans. Take a look inside.

For the past month, World Cup hospitality has been the name of the game for the City of Brotherly Love.

Philadelphia unveiled its 39-day FIFA FanFest on June 11, and a week later on June 19, it saw a record-breaking 250,000 attendees.

As of Wednesday, July 8, more than 425,000 fans have attended the event.

The city started planning for the World Cup in 2017, when it began preparing its bid to host, Meg Kane, the CEO of Philadelphia Soccer 2026, told Business Insider.

The goal: Position Philly as a bulwark capable of putting on the nation’s most sought-after events. “I like to lovingly refer to it as ‘soccer Coachella,’ what we’re trying to do,” Kane told Business Insider.

Its FanFest, which goes until July 19, runs alongside other crowd-drawing events in Philadelphia, including the multi-day Wawa Welcome America festival, dozens of semiquincentennial-celebration programs, six World Cup games, and the MLB All-Star Game on July 14.

And, unlike other cities’ FanFests, Philly’s is free to attend and runs for over a month straight.

Business Insider attended the festival on July 2, during the Portugal-Croatia game and in 102-degree heat, to find out what it takes to create and stage a festival of this scale.

FanFest’s organizers, attendees, and vendors shared about their preparations and experiences navigating soccer fans, FIFA regulations, and weather like sweltering heat, flash floods, and high winds.