The Fanmeile: How Germany Invented the Watch Party, and What We're Building in Venice
In the summer of 2006, something happened on the streets of Berlin that had no real precedent. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along the Straße des 17. Juni to watch Germany play on enormous outdoor screens. Flags everywhere. Strangers embracing. A city united around a football match.
They called it the Fanmeile. The fan mile. It drew 500,000 people for a single match. 21 million across the tournament. It became the word of the year in Germany — and the blueprint for how the world watches football.
The concept spread fast. Every major tournament since has had its version. America in 2026 is no different — bars, backyards, and plazas from coast to coast are building their own. The infrastructure is there. The appetite is there. What most are missing is the thing that made Berlin work: the sense that this is a tradition, not just an event.
That is what we are here to provide.
[Photo: CEO Matthias and Family hosting 2010 World Cup Watch Party]
Frankfurt to Venice
We were nine years old when the 2006 Fanmeile happened. Old enough to feel it, young enough that it became part of how we understood what football meant.
Growing up in Frankfurt, the Fanmeile was not a distant news story — it was the cultural backdrop of our adolescence. Every tournament after that, every public viewing, every bar with a screen and a crowd carried that same energy. You did not need to explain it. Everyone already knew what they were there for.
When we moved to Venice to build Paulaner Sunset, we brought that with us. Not as nostalgia — as a standard. This is what a watch party should feel like. This is the energy the moment deserves. A cold Sunset, people who showed up, and a match worth watching.
Two years in, we have partner accounts across the country showing the World Cup and serving Sunset. Each one is its own Fanmeile. Each one is the tradition landing somewhere new.
[Photo: Wurstküche Watch Party during 2022 Euros]
Our flagship: Wurstküche Venice
If there is one place that captures what we are building, it is Wurstküche Venice →. Our flagship watch party venue for the 2026 World Cup — and the home of something we have never brought to America before.
Team Sunset built a Torwandschießen. We are bringing it to Wurstküche for the entire tournament. If you do not know what a Torwandschießen is, read this first → — but the short version is: it is the most German thing we have ever done on American soil, and we cannot wait for you to try it.
Find your Fanmeile
The full map of Paulaner Sunset watch party venues is live. Every account on this map is showing World Cup matches and serving Sunset throughout the tournament. Find the one closest to you, show up, and bring someone.
When you get there — tag us. #SunsetFanmeile is where every watch party, every cold Sunset, every last-minute goal and group reaction lives this tournament. It does not matter if you are at a partner venue or your own living room. If there is a Sunset in your hand and a match on the screen, that is a Fanmeile.
Our page runs a live feed of every piece of #SunsetFanmeile content posted throughout the tournament. Which means your moment — your bar, your friends, your reaction — could be featured in front of everyone who visits. Post it, tag it, and you might just end up on the wall.
If you are an account showing the World Cup and serving Sunset and you are not on this map yet, shoot an email to cheers@paulaner-sunset.com. We want to amplify everything you are doing — reposts, features, co-branded content. The more Fanmeiles the better.
Follow the World Cup with us on Instagram → and TikTok →· Watch the game with Sunset near you here →· Read about the Torwandschießen coming to Wurstküche here →· Tag your watch party #SunsetFanmeile
About Paulaner Sunset Sunset is a project of friends and family in Venice, California to bring Germany's most iconic soft drink to the United States. Known in Germany as Spezi, the orange cola from Munich is one of the most popular soda options in Germany and has a strong cult status among its millions of fans. More on our story →