Record of Determination for the temporary restriction of access to and public limit in certain areas of the National Mall and Memorial Parks for the Great American State Fair and FIFA World Cup Fan Zone, amended June 20, 2026

In celebration of the 250^th anniversary of American independence, the Great American State Fair, including the FIFA World Cup Fan Zone, are 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) imposed and will continue to impose 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 map 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. This amendment to the June 17 record of determination for these events extends the closure date for some National Mall parklands through 11:59 on July 24 and roads through approximately 08:00 p.m. on July 22. These extensions are necessary to ensure worker and public safety during the removal of temporary structures and clearing of the site. This work involves moving and loading heavy equipment, staging debris from disassembly of temporary structures, and trucks moving in and out of the event site. These activities could endanger pedestrians and vehicles if the public were permitted in the area. The United States Park Police (USPP) has confirmed these closures are necessary for public safety and that less restrictive measures would not suffice. Closures will be lifted as soon as they are no longer necessary, restoring access to the public as soon as practicable. Violation is prohibited. This Record of Determination continues an existing closure and is issued solely to correct a minor typo in the text of the prior version, though the extent of the closure was correctly reflected in the attached maps and has been in effect without issue.

Specifically, there will be temporary visitor access restrictions of the following locations:

Parklands:

National Mall Panels between 3^rd Street and 4^th Street

• 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 Panels between 4^th Street and 14^th Street

• 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, until 11:59 Wednesday, July 24. 2026.

Road Closures: Madison Drive NW, and Jefferson Drive SW between 3^rd and 14^th Street

• 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 22, 2026, at approximately 8:00 p.m. (times on this date may be subject to change based on operational and law-enforcement needs).

12^th Street between Madison Drive NW and Constitution Avenue

• Starting at midnight on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.

12^th Street between Jefferson Drive SW and Independence Avenue

• Starting at midnight on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, the following streets will be closed to vehicle traffic.

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 through 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 arenecessary for public safety and security.

A prior version of this same Record of Determination included a typo regarding the cross-street of this closure (incorrectly indicated 7^th Street instead of 3^rd Street), although it was correctly reflected in the attached map. The only change in this newly issued Record of Determination is to correct that typo.


Kevin L. Griess /s/ 7/20/2026
Superintendent


Table 1: Detailed Schedule of FIFA Fan Zone Open Hours

DATE	TIME
Tuesday, July 14	2:00pm – 6:00pm
Wednesday, July 15	2:00pm – 6:00pm
Thursday, July 16	Site Closed
Friday, July 17	Site Closed
Saturday, July 18	4:00pm - 8:00pm
Sunday, July 19	2:00pm - 6:00pm