Rugby World Cup fanzone opens in Newcastle

Tyne Tees
RWC2015
St James Park
Newcastle
Saturday 26 September 2015 at 5:24pm

The RWC fanzone has opened near St James' Park, Newcastle. Credit: ITV News Tyne Tees

A dedicated fanzone for the Rugby World Cup has opened in Newcastle ahead of England's match against Wales.

The area near St James' Park can hold up to 10,000 fans, and is open today for a preview event before it fully opens on October 2.

St James' Park will host three matches during the tournament, which will also be shown on the big screen in the fanzone:

South Africa v Scotland - Saturday 3 October, 16:45
New Zealand v Tonga - Friday 9 October, 20:00
Samoa v Scotland - Saturday 10 October 14:30

The funfair at the fanzone near St James' Park, Newcastle. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

"We're expecting fans from five different countries; they're coming from the other side of the world, it's going to be busy, it's going to be vibrant and for Newcastle, it's going to be a chance for them to show what a wonderful host city they're going to be. "The challenge is over the logistics of 150,000 people coming into Newcastle for the matches, we've got the fanzone running, that's got a capacity of 10,000 and it's busy. "We've got the normal nighttime economy to think about, we've got thousands of freshers arriving to start at University and we've got Premier League football matches on going as well so it's nothing we haven't done before, we're very experienced at handling these number of events and large scale events. "We're ready to go and looking forward to it."