In the words of the legendary hip-hop artist Tupac, “California knows how to party.”
Those words certainly rang true over the October 23-24th weekend. The Premier League and NBC welcomed over 8,000 fans for the Premier League Mornings Live Fan Fest at the famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – the first in-person Fan Fest since 2019.
West Coast Premier League fans are a different breed. They regularly wake up for 4:30 AM PT kickoffs to support their clubs thousands of miles away. So, when the fan fest came to town, they showed up… getting in line around 2:30am PT before the gates opened at 3:30am PT.
The weekend started with unprecedented weather… rain in California. Since when does that happen? Yet again, though, LA and West Coast fans demonstrated how dedicated they are and stuck it out until the sun peeked through on occasion throughout the rest of the day.
Come Sunday, the Coliseum grounds were rockin’, full of fans repping their different shades of red ahead of the weekend’s marquee matchup between Manchester United and Liverpool.
The GESM team worked in collaboration with the Premier League and NBC teams leading up to the event, as well as on the ground in LA to create unique fan experiences and tell the stories of the most-hardcore of Premier League fans.
Making Shade’s #MyPLWish Come True
The Premier League and @PLinUSA launched a brand new campaign at the Fan Fest all about making the ultimate wishes of PL fans come true.
Meet Shade, a diehard Newcastle fan, who had his wish granted by Alan Shearer and Newcastle to have one more matchday experience with his mom who sadly passed away earlier in 2021.
Fans can submit their #MyPLWish at premierleague.com/MyPLWish for the chance to have their wish granted throughout the remainder of the 2021/22 season.
Ramping things up with PL skateboards
Skateboarding blossomed in LA in the 1970s and continues to be woven into the culture of the city to this day. Paired with a thriving, eclectic art scene, we teamed up with the group at Secret Walls to bring together five artists to commission skate decks for each of the 20 teams.
With the unique canvas of a skate deck, each artist took inspiration from various details about the club and the cities they are proud to represent to create a one-of-a-kind representation in their own unique style.
This thread provides details from each artist about the pieces they created.
PL mascots hit the town from the beach to Hollywood
The mascots of Premier League clubs were thrilled to explore all that LaLaLand has to offer. From Venice Beach to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they didn’t miss a beat in taking in the sights of LA with Newcastle’s Alan Shearer and Watford’s Jay DeMerit.
The stars were out in full force
What’s a trip to LA without celebrity sightings? Fan Fest brought out some household names, including: Arnold Schwarzenegger, WWE Superstars Sheamus and Drew McIntyre, Ted Lasso’s Coach Beard, Olympians Maggie Steffens and Adam Rippon, and Harry Potter’s Matthew Lewis.
Fan Fest rocked Southern California
Oh yeah, remember when we mentioned unprecedented weather? Well, earthquakes might be commonplace in California, but this was the first time an earthquake rocked a PL Mornings Live Fan Fest… just see what NBC’s Rebecca Lowe had to say about it.
Eventually, the sun set on another fan fest and West Coast fans truly showed up. Take a look at everything that happened over the weekend.
Now we sit on pins and needles to see where and when the next Fan Fest will be!
Categories: Feature, Featured, Premier League