An official opening celebration event is scheduled for Freedom Mobile Arch, the new PNE amphitheatre, just a week before the first date of its weeks-long use for Vancouver’s official FIFA World Cup Fan Festival.
The PNE announced today that the opening night celebration for the world-class entertainment venue will be held on Friday, June 5, 2026.
Construction on the covered outdoor amphitheatre — on the footprint of the former 1960s-built temporary amphitheatre — first began in Spring 2024, and it is now in the very final stages of its completion and opening ahead of the FIFA World Cup.
“The Freedom Mobile Arch is a new home for music, art and culture in British Columbia, and we are so proud to feature B.C. and Canadian artists for the Opening Night Celebration,” said Shelley Frost, the president and CEO of the PNE, in a statement today.
“This evening signifies the PNE’s dedication to our cultural and creative communities, and our belief in the opportunity a world-class venue like the Freedom Mobile Arch gives as a gathering place for shared experiences.”
The 90-minute evening event will be a variety show, featuring legendary Canadian singer Jann Arden, as well as other performers such as Tyson Venegas, renowned opera singer Spencer Britton, and Bobby Bruce’s Nearly Neil and the Solitary Band. There will also be “surprise” musical artists and special guests, with over 200 performers set to take the stage.
Moreover, the event “will blend a meaningful Indigenous cultural welcome, music, dance, comedy and storytelling into a celebration of our rich cultural past. Guests to this event will also have the first public opportunity to view the significant and important pieces of Indigenous art that anchor the venue.”
To attend the opening event, a ticket purchase will be required, with online pre-registration beginning today.
Concept of Freedom Mobile Arch, the new PNE amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture/PNE)
Concept of Freedom Mobile Arch, the new PNE amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture/PNE)
The amphitheatre is hard to miss in the Hastings Park skyline, with its landmark mass-timber domed roof — the largest of its kind in North America. It is designed by Revery Architecture and built by EllisDon.
It has a capacity for 10,000 spectators, including 6,000 seated under the roof and another 4,000 in a flexible open lawn area in the rear, known as the “BCLC Backyard” under a sponsorship agreement with B.C. Lottery Corporation. There are also a number of box seats and suites.
During the amphitheatre’s major uses of live match screenings and concerts during the FIFA Fan Festival, the venue will not be referred to as the “Freedom Mobile Arch” due to FIFA’s sponsorship regulations.
The venue features extensive, permanent, purpose-built back-of-house and front-of-house facilities, including concessions, stage, and built-in equipment, with the mass-timber roof also serving to contain and enhance sound quality.
VIP pod; concept of Freedom Mobile Arch, the new PNE amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture)
VIP pod; concept of Freedom Mobile Arch, the new PNE amphitheatre. (Revery Architecture)
May 2024 artistic rendering of the new PNE Amphitheatre. (PNE)
The $184-million amphitheatre is intended to significantly enhance both the quality and quantity of concerts and other events that the PNE can attract, providing a new source of revenue. A new amphitheatre was first envisioned over a decade and a half ago in the municipal government’s Hastings Park/PNE master plan, with major planning work for actual implementation beginning a few years before the pandemic.
The weather protection provided by the roof also enables a longer operating season throughout much of the year, as opposed to the previous dilapidated venue’s open-air configuration.
This already appears to be evident, as the PNE has announced a concert lineup featuring higher-profile international acts for the amphitheatre’s first-ever PNE Fair season, beginning later in August 2026.
