The Pope Francis tickets nobody knew they would need (until the U.S. Secret Service released a map last week outing them) have been made available online today.
Last Friday, after a turmoil-filled week, the groups hosting the Pope in Philadelphia revealed details of how the public can get a pass to the one event they had always promoted as ticketed: Francis’ speech on immigration and religious freedom at Independence Mall.
The World Meeting of Families placed 10,000 free tickets to the Sept. 26 speech online at www.worldmeeting2015.org/tickets at noon today, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said. Orders will be limited to four passes.
Details on how the public can get tickets to Francis’ Sunday mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway or to the Festival of Families on Saturday featuring Andrea Bocelli, the singer Juanes and The Philadelphia Orchestra, will be made public soon. They’re expected to be made available Sept. 9.
Until last Wednesday, tickets weren’t even a major part of the papal visit lexicon.
That all changed when officials with the World Meeting of Families and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia were forced to reveal their ticketing plans after the Secret Service’s official map for the Pope’s visit was made public, showing a broad “ticketed area” in red on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
After suggesting for months that most of Francis’ events would not require tickets, organizers had to explain red-shaded zones at the front of two of the weekend’s biggest public events: The Pope’s Sunday afternoon mass and appearance at the Festival of Families, both on the Parkway.
Tickets, albeit free, will be required to access an area of the Parkway stretching from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to Logan Circle, about half a mile away. A second zone, shown in purple and stretching from Logan Circle to City Hall, will not require tickets.
Both zones will be fenced off and participants will need to go through security checkpoints to enter.
Tickets for the red zone will be distributed primarily to parishes in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but also in smaller numbers to parishes in surrounding areas. The Allentown Archdiocese is slated to receive 200 tickets for each event.
After public outcry about the newly-revealed ticket policy, World Meeting of Families Executive Director Donna Crilley Farrell said festival organizers had decided to release an additional 25,000 tickets to the general public, making them available online over the next week or two.
The additional tickets included 5,000 passes to Francis’ Saturday address on immigration, double the number that had initially been announced.
More Top Picks Best Sewing Machines
Organizers will make 10,000 additional tickets available to the general public for each of the Parkway events, the Festival of Families on Saturday and the mass on Sunday.
To demonstrate that even non-ticket holders will get a chance to see the pope, organizers announced that Francis will parade twice on the Parkway, a shorter route on Sunday and a longer route stretching around City Hall and through the non-ticketed area on Saturday. He will also be visible on 40 Jumbotrons scattered around Center City.
It has been a rollercoaster for the city and papal visit organizers, who had only just pivoted from explaining and re-explaining security measures to promoting the joys and opportunities presented by Pope Francis’ first tour of the United States since his elevation to pontiff.
Slow sales of special SEPTA passes for regional rail trains heading into the city over the weekend to see the pope and some remaining Center City hotel vacancies began to cause some to speculate turnout might not be a high as the predictions of 1.5 to 2 million.
SEPTA printed 300,000 of the special $10 day-passes. “We still have plenty available,” said Jerri Williams, a SEPTA spokeswoman. Tens of thousands remain unsold.
An informal hotel room search quickly turned up rooms available at the Holiday Inn Express Midtown for $469 a night for a Friday through Monday stay, and at the Hotel Monaco, a Kimpton boutique hotel in the historic district, for $399 a night.
Twitter @skraus
610-820-6745