Updated: 4:25 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Elissa Puente arrived at Seoul International Park around noon last Thursday with her daughter, expecting to spend the day enjoying a family-friendly World Cup festival.
Puente and her daughter traveled from Burbank and spent the first several hours visiting vendors, watching performances and soaking in the festival atmosphere surrounding the highly anticipated Mexico vs. South Korea World Cup watch party.
But people continued pouring into the narrow viewing area along Irolo Street during the final hour before the match, and despite repeated announcements urging fans to be respectful and keep walkways clear, people around her began pushing. Puente said she was stepped on twice.
“It became a serious safety concern when I saw people were starting to push against my daughter as well. I decided to leave at that point,” Puente said. “I hope for future events there is a time limit, RSVP system or just better crowd control on site.”
Organizers estimate more than 10,000 people attended the June 18 watch party, turning Koreatown into one of the largest World Cup gathering spots in Los Angeles but also raising questions about whether Seoul International Park was prepared for a crowd of that size.
The watch party was promoted as part of Mayor Karen Bass’ “Kick It in the Park” World Cup programming. The city’s website states that official watch parties are limited to 1,000 attendees at a time.
Organizers announced plans for the watch party in March, while Bass unveiled the city’s World Cup programming in May.
Paul “PK” Kim, marketing director for the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation, a co-host of the watch party, said the event was a success overall, but he became concerned before the 6 p.m. kickoff.
Kim said he repeatedly urged police officers to restrict access points as crowds continued growing. While no one anticipated a crowd that large, he said the response from city agencies fell short once it became clear the park was over capacity. Still, the foundation said the Los Angeles Police Department did the best it could under the circumstances.
Los Angeles Police Capt. Rachel Rodriguez said the department was not tasked with crowd management during the event.
“It wasn’t our event to control access points, at that point we’re just making sure everyone is safe as they come in and out,” said Rodriguez.
She placed full responsibility for crowd management on the event organizers and the mayor’s community engagement team. Aside from a suspect who was arrest on suspicion of shooting a man outside the event, there were no safety hazards reported to officers at the event, Rodriguez said.
Questions about crowd control
In a statement, Councilmember Heather Hutt’s office said organizers had expected about 5,000 attendees, but turnout “completely exceeded all expectations.”
Hutt called the event a success and said it demonstrated the demand for additional park and recreation space in Koreatown, where she has supported efforts to expand Seoul International Park.
Alex Cha, president of the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation, said he is “proud that we were able to bring the Korean and Mexican communities together” and that he hopes events like this continue strengthening the sense of unity that makes LA special.
The turnout at the watch party was not anticipated to be this large, according to Ilanna Morales, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office. Morales said Seoul International Park will continue to be included in the city’s “Kick It in the Park” programming, but the Mexico vs. South Korea watch party was a unique case.
Morales said Seoul International Park was selected by Hutt’s office, while the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation was responsible for obtaining permits to close Irolo Street.
Future watch parties at Seoul International Park will return to a more traditional format, according to Morales. Those events are typically held on the park’s soccer field and designed for up to 1,000 attendees because of licensing requirements.
Thursday’s event was set up as a full-day festival, with the park opening at 10 a.m. Fans quickly filled the park hours before kickoff.
Food and merchandise vendors drew long lines, while performers rotated through a packed entertainment lineup. Throughout Koreatown, bars, restaurants and businesses filled with soccer fans, with crowds spilling onto nearby sidewalks and streets.
But several attendees said crowding became a concern as kickoff approached.
Alexis Castro arrived around 3 p.m. and said conditions were manageable at first, but left 30 minutes before kickoff because of the swelling crowds.
“People were at a standstill and trying to push forward, it was impossible to distinguish the lines for the food stands from all the spectators trying to get closer,” Castro said. “The restroom lines extended down the sidewalk and people were stepping and stumbling over each other.”
Organizers repeatedly asked attendees to keep walkways clear, but several people there said the requests largely went ignored and they did not see anyone actively enforcing them.
Jason Lee said he spent more than an hour parking and entering the event, only to struggle to find a clear view of the match.
“I had to resort to holding my phone up over the crowd of people to see the match through the camera,” he said.
Milo Bennett, a Koreatown resident, never made it to the park and eventually joined dozens of people standing outside a fried chicken restaurant and watched through the window. Every business in the strip mall that had a TV was playing the game, he said.
“It was about 10 times more busy and exciting than when the Dodgers won the World Series, but this was a first-round group stage match,” he said.
“I don’t think any of these bars and restaurants ever saw this coming,” he said. “I think the World Cup hype was actually severely underestimated by the city.”
Kim, the marketing director for the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation, said the crowding raised alarms because he had seen the aftermath of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush in Seoul, where more than 150 people were killed after becoming trapped in a narrow alley during Halloween celebrations.
Kim said he urged police officers to restrict access on the Olympic Boulevard side of the park as more people continued arriving.
“It was driving me crazy that they couldn’t read the situation, they were oblivious, they don’t know soccer, they don’t know soccer fans, they reacted too late,” he said.
A crowd crush was also on some other attendees’ minds.
As Jennifer Garcia tried to leave the park, she and her boyfriend overheard someone compare the crowd to Astroworld, the 2021 Houston music festival where 10 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in a crowd crush.
Garcia watched as more fans continued pouring into the area. That’s when she decided it was time to leave.
“We just felt it was going to get uglier so we thought it was best we just leave,” Garcia said.
Kim says it would have made more sense to use the nearby soccer fields as part of the watch party setup.
“They just put everybody in a narrow corridor and had people climbing fences and trees. They could’ve put a screen in an empty field,” Kim said.
Not long after kickoff, some fans took matters into their own hands.
Right outside the soccer field, Koreatown resident LJ Kim set up a television by the bleachers after realizing many people couldn’t see the jumbo screens.
Kim, who lives a few blocks away, said he went home, grabbed a television and battery pack, and returned to set up his own viewing area.
“I’m a problem solver,” he said. “We want to be together. We want the aura, we want the vibes.”
A third watch party is scheduled for June 24 at Liberty Park, where fans can watch South Korea take on South Africa. The festival begins at 2 p.m. and kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Student journalist Nathan Reyes contributed to this story.
