Event · 2026

Fan Fest

One day at the FIFA Fan Festival, shot almost entirely from the wrong side of the stage.

Client: FIFA Fan Festival, Kansas City
Role: Photography
Year: 2026

The FIFA Fan Festival came to Kansas City and I spent the day with a pass that let me stand in the one place nobody was looking.

Everyone else was pointed at the stage. I kept turning around. The cheerleaders waiting in a line with nothing to do. The tape on the road cases. The mascot sitting on a coil of ducting with its head off. Two people in headsets holding onto each other at the end of a shift that had clearly been very long.

The music was good. The part I keep coming back to is the waiting.

A road case covered in gaffer tape labels, parked on grass with the Liberty Memorial tower and the Kansas City skyline behind it — Everything arrives in a box with someone's handwriting on it.

Cheerleaders in red uniforms holding pom-poms, waiting in a line at the side of the stage

Performers waiting in the wings as the crowd moves past on the concourse beyond — Most of the day is standing still.

A costumed mascot watching a drumline perform, seen from behind the stage stacks

A drumline in red and white playing under the stage truss, shot from the wings

The mascot resting on coils of white ducting backstage, off duty — Off duty.

A saxophonist laughing mid-performance, lit against a bright teal screen

A saxophonist playing on a wide empty stage surrounded by cables, stands and rigging — The stage is enormous and almost entirely empty.

A DJ working at the decks, framed against an open sky and the venue structure behind

A DJ behind a stage monitor with a strip of green tape marked FIFA stuck to it

Two crew members in headsets holding each other in a long hug, festival screens glowing behind them — The end of a very long shift.

A crew member in a lanyard turning to the camera and throwing a peace sign

Three people talking on the ramp at the side of the stage as the crowd gathers beyond

The main stage seen from the crowd, screens lit up above people milling in the fan zone — The side everybody else sees.

People crowded around a television inside a marquee, watching a match

A wider view inside the marquee, a match playing on a screen above the heads of the crowd

A lone figure standing at the edge of the stage in flat afternoon light

A heart drawn in red marker on a white board, rays coming off it — Somebody drew this and went back to work.

Let's make something.