Once upon a time, the pub was the default choice for most football fans keen to watch the match with fellow supporters – and spilling your beer on a fellow patron was a serious faux pas. But watching the World Cup this year is a bigger, some would say better, and almost certainly wetter experience.
The phenomenon of fan parks has changed the way supporters have been cheering on the Three Lions in recent years. Large crowds amass under a giant screen to sing and shout their way through the ebbs and flows of England’s tournament progress.
They are usually joined by hundreds or sometimes thousands of other supporters. “It’s a beast but we’re ready for it,” says Phillipe Chiarella, the chief executive of The Garden Vauxhall, which broadcasts World Cup games for as many as 1,500 people.
The other thing they’re prepared for is the spontaneous goal celebrations that are now ubiquitous in the age of the fan park: pint tossing.
Videos on social media have gone viral showing euphoric fans chucking their pints in the air as Harry Kane or one of his teammates put the ball in the back of the net. “I’ve been drenched by beer,” says Chiarella. “It’s a bit of a nightmare because everything gets sticky and horrible.
“We haven’t really had it during our France or Spain matches. England fans love to waste their money and throw their beer in the air. I’m not complaining,” he says. The clean-up isn’t too bad either “because most of it lands on people not on the floor”
It’s undoubtedly an expression of ecstatic celebration and relief among the England faithful. But some who find themselves covered in booze are less keen. The comedian Jacob Hawley, who was at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, for England’s game against Croatia said the first beer was tossed after Harry Kane missed a penalty. “I’m dodging pints and it’s not even gone in,” he says.
By the end of the game, where he guesses about 10 beers were lobbed in his direction, he was “drenched”. His soaked friend, who wore all denim, had to leave the game early. But he admits he’s “the miserable one”.
“I don’t want to be soaked in beer all night,” he said. “I don’t want to smell of beer when I drop my kids off at school the next day.”
With scorching heat and demand for beer through the roof, getting the basics – pints and ice – sorted has been tricky. “Believe it or not, it’s very difficult to get beer in London right now,” Chiarella says.
When the capital was in the grips of a heatwave last month, he says at one point it looked like “ice supplies in London were running out”. But everything came together in the end.
Marcus Alexander, who was waiting for Spain – the team he’s supporting this World Cup – was equally baffled by the trend. The assistant director, 30, was in Budapest recently for the Champions League final where Arsenal were hoping to clock in a double title win.
“When we scored in the first five minutes, my bag was drenched. The person sitting next to me was drenched too and she wasn’t happy,” he says. Alexander also thinks its a tradition reserved for England games. “Most European fans like to keep their drinks,” he says, to which his friend responded: “They’re cheap!”
It may not be for everyone but the logic follows that if the pints are flying, England are scoring. And that’s good enough for Deepak Agarwal, The Garden’s junior manager. “We don’t mind cleaning the garden, it’s part of our job and we want people to have a good time,” he says.
