Skip to content

World Cup: Football and festivals

PA England fansPA

A whopping 18m people watched England in their opening World Cup game.

As the tournament gathers pace though, and England prepare for their second Group G match, spare a thought for those missing out due to work.

Yes, we're looking at the likes of you: paramedics, chefs, and astronauts. But there are also those who are too busy entertaining others to watch.

"I have a very clear policy with the rest of the boys on this," explains Josh from You Me at Six.

"If there is a game I want to watch, I will try and watch as much as possible until we have to go on but there have been occasions where I've not been able to concentrate on stage."

You Me At Six

In what we suspect is an exclusive, the band reveal to Newsbeat just how they keep in touch with the World Cup when performing.

"Our drum tech has been watching the games before and talking to us on our in-ears," says Dan.

"He'll be like '2-1' or '3-1' and then everyone's mood changes during the set."

Allow Instagram content?

This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read  and  before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Presentational white space

While You Me at Six are rather discreet about their World Cup antics, the same cannot be said for George Ezra.

He wore the famous yellow Brazil shirt during a series of gigs in south America earlier this month.

"I never follow football but I get so into the World Cup," he tells Newsbeat.

"Because I don't follow like everyone else it's more exciting to me."

Although it sounds unlikely that George will continue his football shirt wearing.

"Because it was our first ever gig in Brazil it felt ok but I don't think we should do this in every country we go to from now on," he says

"We've got gigs this weekend in Germany and I don't think we'll be going out with German jerseys on."

Getty Images England trainingGetty Images
(L-R) Eric Dier, Kieran Trippier, Marcus Rashford, Jamie Vardy, Jesse Lingard and Phil Jones training

Before Germany supporters get too offended, here's Josh from You Me at Six to the rescue.

"The French and German squads absolutely terrify me.

"Those are the two favourites for me at this World Cup."

Newsbeat's at the World Cup in Russia this summer.

You can follow our coverage on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Or listen live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.