Fans briefly turned away from FIFA Fan Festival in Miami due to scorching heat
.png "Temperatures were so high on Monday, June 22, that some fans were turned away from entering the FIFA Fan Festival at Bayfront Park in Miami.")
FIFA fans have flooded Miami to cheer on their favorite players and teams, and they’re getting the whole South Florida experience — extreme heat and all.
On Monday, the temperatures were so high that fans were briefly turned away from the FIFA Fan Festival in Bayfront Park, Aaron Alamary, president of TruPark USA, posted on X.
“Please be advised. Temperatures have reached a heat index exceeding 110 degrees. All guests are asked to move to shaded areas to avoid a forced evacuation,” a digital sign at the venue read in a picture Alamary posted.
Alamary told the Miami Herald he tried to attend the festival around 3 p.m. but was stopped by staff, who were not allowing anyone to enter the gates. He saw they had moved all fans inside to shaded or air-conditioned areas. Rebuffed, Alamary made the long drive back to his home in Boca Raton.
“I was frustrated being unable to get in,” he said. “I will likely try again but go later in the day when it’s a bit cooler, to be safe.”
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A ‘red flag’
The temporary block of new fans entering the festival was part of the event’s protocol to keep people safe in the heat, said Ray Martinez, chief operating officer for FIFA World Cup 2026 Miami host committee.
Martinez said there’s a “unified command” at the festival, with police, fire rescue, production staff and an on-site meteorologist. When the data showed the heat index hit 110 on Monday afternoon, it was a “red flag” for the organizers. Around the same time, Martinez said, fire rescue received a few medical calls from fans experiencing heat sickness at the event.
That led organizers to briefly block new fans from entering and encourage all fans inside the venue to seek shade or AC.
About 30 to 45 minutes later, “It dipped down to 106 on the heat index, so we were allowed to re-open and allow people back in,” Martinez said.
“Safety and wellbeing is a primary concern for all of us. We don’t want to put people at risk,” he said.
More hot days ahead
The heat index, a combination of regular temperature plus the humidity that makes South Florida summers so unbearable, has been high all week. But Monday was technically below the threshold where the National Weather Service issues warnings and advisories to residents about the heat.
And the heat’s not stopping anytime soon. NWS officials issued another heat advisory on Tuesday, warning that the heat index (or “feels like” temperature) could reach 110 degrees.
This has been an unusually hot stretch of days for a region infamous for its sweaty summers. The first heat advisory of the summer was issued on June 15 and repeated daily through the 21st. Tuesday marks the seventh heat warning this summer.
Compare that to last June, where zero heat advisories were issued. Or look at June 2024, where a record-breaking heat wave cooked corals along the Florida coast. That year, there were only three heat advisories issued in June.
Miami Herald staff writer Michelle Kauffman contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 23, 2026 at 10:41 AM.
