The Shindigz National Soccer Festival will once again return to Fort Wayne for its 18th year on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, August 18th, 19th & 20th. The festival will include many sites in 2016: Indiana Tech’s Warrior Athletic Field and Bishop John D’Arcy stadium at the University of Saint Francis among others to be announced. Top-notch high school and collegiate teams will again participate in the Shindigz National Soccer Festival, including UCLA, Syracuse and Indiana. Full schedules are now available online at www.NationalSoccerFestival.com . Advance discount tickets can now be purchased at Fort Wayne-area Connolly’s Do It Best Hardware locations and Soccer Plus. As in years past, tickets can also be purchased at the gate on the days of the event.
The fall event will kick off on Thursday, August 18th, at Bishop D’Arcy stadium featuring the Orange of Syracuse vs. the Spartans of Michigan State starting at 7:00 p.m. The opening night is also Parkview night where employees of Parkview Health, along with up to four of their family and friends, will only be charged only $2 each to enter the game. Parkview employees must show their employee badge and are limited to a total of five $2 entry tickets. Hall’s Restaurants are also sponsoring a $1 beer night where draft beers will be available for only $1. Exciting halftime events include a kick-to-win opportunity for attendees with limited special edition scarves as prizes and the honoring of special guests.
Due to the heavy amount of rain over the past few days and its low-lying area, the Festival’s Friday and Saturday games at IPFW’s Hefner Fields will be relocated to other sites throughout the city including Indiana Tech’s Warrior Athletic Field.
What began in 1999 has now become the nationally known phenomenon of the Shindigz National Soccer Festival. What was merely a soccer event has now turned into a full-fledged, grass roots community supported soccer celebration. Corporations, foundations and personal donations are the backbone of the festival. The beneficiaries of the event are the city of Fort Wayne for the national recognition it receives; the area youth for the hands-on interaction with the soccer players and coaches from national major universities; the local businesses of northeast Indiana, for the added commerce brought to the region; the area universities, for the added exposure and the average Fort Wayne citizen who knows nothing about the game, but loves to have fun in a family oriented atmosphere.
Currently, the Shindigz National Soccer Festival has evolved into a true community soccer celebration, including youth clinics put on by major university coaches and players, wide ranges of live entertainment, opportunities for youth involvement, food vendors and giveaway prizes; now located at both the beautiful IPFW west campus of Hefner Fields and at the state-of-the-art Bishop John D’Arcy stadium on the stellar campus of the University of Saint Francis. Shindigz National Soccer Festival is honored again, this year, to bring top-ranked college soccer teams, along with highly prestigious high school teams, to Fort Wayne. Due to its great history, Shindigz National Soccer Festival has been recognized nationally as the premier event to attend for pre-season collegiate soccer.
