The City Park Development Company (Városliget Ltd) is making extensive preparations for this year’s UEFA Champions League final in Budapest. On 30 May, the City Park (Városliget) will host one of the biggest events in its 200-year history and become one of the focal points of the international sports world, the company said in a statement on Friday.
The 2026 UEFA Champions League final will be played at the Puskás Arena on 30 May, where defending champions Paris Saint-Germain of France will face England’s Arsenal.
According to the statement, never before has the park had to handle such a level of international attention, such a large concentration of fans, and such a complex set of logistical and security tasks. Hosting one of the world’s most-watched annual sporting events—followed globally by hundreds of millions—places the City Park in three closely connected roles.
The park will host the official fan zone for one of the finalists, serve as the immediate neighbouring area of the four-day international fan festival at Heroes’ Square, and play a key role in receiving, directing, and managing the movement of foreign supporters.
The reception and handling of fans arriving in the City Park on 30 May will begin early in the morning. Charter flights arriving at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport will continuously transport tens of thousands of Arsenal supporters to the park.
The fan march heading toward the Puskás Arena is expected to start around 3pm along Olof Palme Promenade. After the match, supporters will return to the park along the same routes before being transported back to the airport by charter services.
Preparations for the event will begin on Friday, 29 May, while dismantling operations will start early Sunday morning and are expected to be completed by Sunday morning.
The company noted that preparations for the weekend are the result of a year and a half of work. Organizers first indicated their land-use requirements shortly after Budapest was selected as the host city at the end of 2024, and the planning, coordination, and permitting process since then has been unprecedented in the park’s history.
Security and logistical preparations have been underway for months in close cooperation with UEFA, the police, the Budapest Transport Centre (BKK), Volánbusz, and British authorities. The agreed security protocols and crowd-management plans establish a comprehensive, officially approved operational framework covering the entire park area to ensure the safe reception, movement, and departure of fans on 30 May.
Because of the scale and complexity of these measures, no other events can be held in parallel in the park on that day. The company emphasized that the fan management protocols, the presence of tens of thousands of foreign supporters, continuous vehicle and bus traffic, and the designated security zones make it impossible to maintain a calm, predictable, family-friendly environment for events such as pre-Children’s Day programmes.
The company acknowledged that the last Sunday of May traditionally hosts one of the busiest and most popular Children’s Day events in the City Park. Since this year it falls on the day after the final, the company is asking civil organizations and institutions organizing Children’s Day events to submit land-use requests only for Sunday.
By Sunday, dismantling work will be completed before the park opens, fan logistics and security operations will have ended, and all relevant areas of the park will once again be accessible and safe for Children’s Day programmes.
The statement also noted that the expected visitor load will place significant strain on the park’s green areas and infrastructure. The company said its primary goal is to protect the park’s long-term condition. Event organizers have committed to covering all restoration work that may become necessary.
Városliget Ltd added that it will operate at maximum capacity throughout the weekend, with all park services—from restrooms and visitor infrastructure to park maintenance, visitor guidance, and security operations—functioning continuously with reinforced staffing.
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