Date
8–11 June 2023
Client
UEFA
Attendees
250,000+ visitors
Location
Istanbul, Türkiye
- about the project
The Challenge
UEFA needed to create a world-class fan experience around the Champions League Final in Istanbul. The project included a four-day Fan Festival at Yenikapı, expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors, and dual Fan Zones at Atatürk Olympic Stadium for 50,000 supporters of the finalist clubs. The challenge was to deliver safe, engaging, and branded fan environments at an unprecedented scale in Turkey, within tight timelines.
Our Approach
We managed and produced the event turnkey across both sites:
- Complete infrastructure and branding: main stages, LED screens, trophy booth, sponsor activations, commercial partner areas, tents, guest facilities, and F&B operations.
- Comprehensive safety and logistics planning, including 24-hour security, accreditation systems, traffic control, and large-scale crowd management.
- Curated entertainment programs: football skills challenges, family-friendly activities, live music, and DJ performances to keep audiences engaged.
- Outcome
The Impact
The Fan Festival welcomed more than 250,000 visitors over four days, setting a new benchmark for public sports activations in Turkey. In parallel, the two Fan Zones hosted 50,000 supporters in total — providing equal, safe, and engaging experiences for both finalist clubs. Despite the scale and complexity, the events were executed seamlessly and received strong recognition from UEFA for flawless delivery under strict deadlines.
Services Provided
- Full turnkey event management and multi-site production
- Infrastructure and branding: main stages, LED screens, sponsor activations, commercial partner areas, tents and guest facilities
- Fan experience design: trophy booth, football skills zones, family activities and live music performances
- Crowd management, accreditation, traffic control and 24-hour security operations
- Logistics coordination across 250,000+ festival visitors and 50,000 fan zone attendees
- Food & beverage operations and guest hospitality
- Artist and entertainment programming including DJs, live acts and family-friendly shows
- On-site staffing, hostesses and technical crews for both Fan Festival and Fan Zones