In celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence, the Great American State Fair, including the FIFA World Cup Fan Zone, will be held on the National Mall between June 25, 2026, through July 10, 2026, and June 11, 2026, through July 19, 2026, respectively. Pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 1.5, beginning on June 10, 2026, the National Park Service (NPS) is imposing a temporary closure of, and public use limit in, certain designated parklands at the National Mall and Memorial Parks in conjunction with the Great American State Fair and the FIFA World Cup Fan Zone, as delineated in the maps below and as further delineated by fencing or other physical barriers. Public entry may be temporarily suspended for safety if attendance in the park area is deemed too dense to safely support additional entry. These closures and public use limits are necessary to provide for public and participant safety and event security needs, as confirmed by the evaluation of the United States Park Police. These temporary closures, further described below, will remain in place in some areas through approximately July 24, 2026. Closures will be lifted as soon as they are no longer necessary, restoring access to the public as soon as practicable. Violation is prohibited. Specifically, there will be temporary visitor access restrictions of the following locations: National Mall Segment Bounded by 3rd Street, Madison Drive NW, 4th Street, and Jefferson Drive SW • Starting at 6:00 am on Thursday, June 11, 2026, the site will be open to the public, subject to security screening and capacity limits to protect life and safety, during the times described in Table 1 and will be fully closed to public access outside of those times.
• Starting at approximately 8:00 pm on Sunday, July 19, and continuing until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, July 24, 2026, the site will be fully closed to the public.
National Mall Segment Bounded by 4th Street, Madison Drive NW, 7th Street, and Jefferson Drive SW • Starting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, other than as noted below, a full closure to the public will be in effect, expected to conclude on Wednesday, July 17, 2026, at approximately 11:59 p.m. (times on this date may be subject to change based on operational and law-enforcement needs.) Exceptions to this closure are described below:
• Starting at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, the site will be open to the public, subject to security screening and capacity limits to protect life and safety, during the times indicated below through Friday, July 10 at 11:00 p.m. At the below times, the site is opened other than those areas being used by the permittee to run the event; the public is not allowed in those areas being utilized for event logistics and services within the impacted area that are delineated by fencing, signage, or other reasonable measures.
o Wednesday, June 24: approximately 4:00 p.m. until approximately 9:30 p.m.
o Thursday, June 25 – Saturday, June 27: 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., daily
o Sunday, June 28 – Tuesday, June 30: 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., daily
o Wednesday, July 1 – Friday, July 3: 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., daily.
o Saturday, July 4: 10:00 a.m. until midnight.
o Sunday, July 5 – Wednesday, July 8: 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., daily.
o Thursday, July 9 – Friday, July 10: 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., daily.
National Mall Segment Bounded by 7th Street, Madison Drive NW, 14th Street, and Jefferson Drive SW • Starting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, other than as noted below, a full closure to the public will be in effect, expected to conclude on Wednesday, July 17, 2026, at approximately 11:59 p.m. (times on this date may be subject to change based on operational and law-enforcement needs.) Exceptions to this closure are described below:
• Starting at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, the site will be open to the public, subject to security screening and capacity limits to protect life and safety, during the times indicated below through Friday, July 10 at 11:00 p.m. At the below times, the site is opened other than those areas being used by the permittee to run the event; the public is not allowed in those areas being utilized for event logistics and services within the impacted area that are delineated by fencing, signage, or other reasonable measures.
o Wednesday, June 24: approximately 4:00 p.m. until approximately 9:30 p.m.
o Thursday, June 25 – Saturday, June 27: 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., daily
o Sunday, June 28 – Tuesday, June 30: 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., daily
o Wednesday, July 1 – Friday, July 3: 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., daily.
o Saturday, July 4: 10:00 a.m. until midnight.
o Sunday, July 5 – Wednesday, July 8: 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., daily.
o Thursday, July 9 – Friday, July 10: 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., daily.
Further, temporary road closures will be implemented at the following locations: From Thursday, June 11, 2026, at 6:00 a.m. to Monday, July 20, 2026, at 8:00 p.m., the following streets will be closed to vehicle traffic during the hours the FIFA World Cup Fan Zone site is open to spectators (see Table 1): • Madison Drive NW from 3rd Street to 4th Street NW
• Jefferson Drive SW from 3rd Street to 4th Street SW
Beginning at midnight on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, July 17, 2026, the following streets will be closed to vehicle traffic: • Madison Drive NW between 3rd Street and 14th Street
• Jefferson Drive SW between 3rd Street and 14th Street
• 12th Street between Madison Drive NW and Constitution Avenue
• 12th Street between Jefferson Drive SW and Independence Avenue
For the areas specified above, the public will be allowed entry following security screening measures. Persons passing through these screening measures will be prohibited from possessing the following items: • Aerosols
• Ammunition
• Animals other than service / guide dogs
• Backpacks and bags exceeding size restrictions (18” x 13” x 7”)
• Balloons
• Bicycles
• Chairs / folding chairs
• Hard-sided coolers (soft-sided coolers within the bag size limit may be allowed subject to individual screening)
• Drones and other unmanned aircraft
• Explosives
• Firearms
• Flammable liquids
• Flipper Zero devices
• Glass, thermal, or metal containers (including personal water bottles)
• Laptops
• Laser pointers
• Mace / pepper spray
• Noise makers
• Packages
• Pineapple Wi-Fi devices
• Pointed umbrellas
• Routers
• Range finders
• Raspberry Pi-enabled devices
• Recreational motorized mobility devices
• Selfie sticks
• Signs exceeding size restrictions (20’ x 3’ x 1⁄4”)
• Signs Not Made of Soft Materials (e.g., paper, cardboard, poster board, cloth, etc.)
• Supports for signs and placards
• Toy guns
• Weapons of any kind
• Structures
• Any other items determined to be potential safety hazards
This temporary and partial closure and public use limit is not of a nature, magnitude and duration that will result in a “significant alteration in the public use pattern.” Further, the public use limit and closure will not adversely affect the parks’ natural, aesthetic or cultural values, is not of a highly controversial nature, and does not require a long-term or significant modification in the resource-management objectives of any affected park. Rather, these closures are limited temporally and geographically as much as possible while still providing for the safety and security of this event, which is similar in many respects to the annually recurring and uncontroversial Smithsonian folklife festival, and still allow for public access to a significant amount of park land after security screening and around the impacted areas. Closures and public use limits such as these are commonplace for these types of public events with large expected attendance and significant load-in and load-out required, and are necessary to provide the public with as much access as possible to park land while also providing for event security and public safety that the United States Park Police has deemed necessary for this event. Accordingly, the National Park Service determines publication as rulemaking in the Federal Register is unwarranted under 36 C.F.R. § 1.5(b). This is consistent with hundreds of earlier partial and temporary park closures or public use limitations, the legal opinion of the Office of the Solicitor, and judicial adjudications. Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02-1715 (D.D.C. August 29, 2002), plaintiff’s emergency motion for injunction pending appeal denied Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02- 5275 (D.C. Cir. September 9, 2002) (per curiam); Picciotto v. United States, No. 99-2113 (D.D.C. August 6, 1999); Picciotto v. United States, No. 94-1935 (D.D.C. September 9, 1994); Picciotto v. Lujan, No. 90-1261 (D.D.C. May 30, 1990); Picciotto v. Hodel, No. 87-3290 (D.D.C. January 26, 1988); Spiegel v. Babbitt, 855 F. Supp. 402 (D.D.C. 1994), aff'd in part w/o op. 56 F.3d 1531 (D.C. Cir. 1995), reported in full, 1995 US App. Lexis 15200 (D.C. Cir. May 31, 1995). Pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 1.7, notice of this temporary and partial closure and public use limit will be made though media advisories, maps, fencing, and by posting at conspicuous locations in the affected park areas. Finally, pursuant to 36 C.F.R. § 1.5(c), this determination is available to the public upon request. The United States Park Police concurs with the Record of Decision and these closures are necessary for public safety and security Kevin L. Griess /s/ Superintendent, National Mall and Memorial Parks 6/17/26 Table 1: Detailed Schedule of FIFA Fan Zone Open Hours
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Last updated: June 18, 2026