Outdoor Football Fan Fest Canceled - Indoor Activities Continue

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CHARLOTTESVILLEThe outdoor portion of Virginia’s Football Fan Fest adjacent to UVa’s Observatory Hill dining facility has been canceled for the remainder of the 2008 season because of drainage issues.

Indoor pregame activities, located in the gymnasium of Virginia’s Aquatic and Fitness Center (AFC), will continue for each of UVa’s remaining home football games beginning with this Saturday’s game against Richmond (Sept. 6, 3:45 p.m. kickoff). Admission is open to everyone at no cost.

“We realized the outdoor site doesn’t drain very well after the recent rains and the drainage issues have led to this decision,” said Todd Goodale, UVa’s associate director of athletics for marketing and video services. “We don’t feel confident the situation will improve significantly enough to enable us to have a quality event. Future rains could further inhibit our ability to deliver the kind of event we envision, so the determination was made to cancel the outdoor portion of Fan Fest for the remainder of the season.

“We’re disappointed because we felt this would be a wonderful addition for our fans and the fans of visiting teams. We’ll continue to look for ways to grow our pregame entertainment options in future years in an outdoor area close to the stadium.”

Fan Fest activities in the AFC include a target toss, a bounce house and other inflatable games, a projection TV showing another college football game, a photo station featuring player cut outs, a video game station and more.

The pregame activities in the AFC begin three hours before kickoff and end 30 minutes before the start of the game.