Bristol Harbour Festival is a chance to impress World Cup bid judges

Bristol's Harbour Festival this weekend is another chance for the city to show off its 2018 World Cup potential and give an inkling of what World Cup fan fests in Bristol could offer.

More than 200,000 people are expected to flock to the city from across the West for the annual festival, which is one of the biggest free events in the country.

And it comes just days before the Bristol bid team heads to Hannover to learn even more about fan fests, transport links, accommodation for teams and visitors, and policing and crowd control, among other issues, from the team who worked on the tournament in Germany 2006.

Hannover hosted 500,000 fans in its city centre 'fan fest' – a designated site for visitors to meet, watch the football live on big screens and be entertained by a range of bands and local acts.

And this weekend's festivities on the Harbourside will give the England bid team another inside take on Bristol's capabilities as the city entertains the masses with seven performance stages, three fringe stages, children's entertainment, continental markets and the city's biggest and most popular annual fireworks show.

For each of the five matches staged in Hannover, culminating in the second round between Spain and France, the city welcomed 100,000 people into its centre.

Some 45,000 sausages were sold, 40,000 pizzas eaten and 380,000 drinks purchased, according to figures released by the Hannover organising committee to the Evening Post.

While these figures are from sales within official areas which will be supplied by FIFA partners and sponsors, it gives an idea of the purchasing power which would be drifting around the city and visiting the local area in the days before and after matches.

The Bristol bid team have already earmarked the stunning landscape of Ashton Court in the West of the city and Eastville Park in the East as fan fest sites in their application to the England 2018 team to become a host city.

They plan to bolster their bid with the further inclusion of live sites on the wide-open reaches of the Downs with its views over the world famous Avon Gorge and down by the Harbourside in Queen Square.

The move could see a procession of colour and an injection to commerce down Whiteladies Road all the way to the centre where fans without tickets could continue their celebrations in Queen Square or stray along the bars, cafes and restaurants into Ashton Court.

Perhaps more importantly for the long-term benefits to Bristol's tourism, the World Cup drew 750 journalists from around the world to Hannover and some 70,000 fan guides and 20,000 brochures about the city were given out promoting tourism and local businesses in the area solely during the period of the tournament.

The Bristol team will be hosted on their three-day trip to Germany by Hannover's Lord Mayor, Stefan Weil from August 4 to August 6 and will have the chance to visit other German cities, such as Frankfurt, which also hosted World Cup matches in 2006.

The team will learn more about the potential economic benefits of being a host city, days after a boost to their transport plans with news the Government has earmarked £195million of funds for North Somerset Council.

The money is part of the Regional Funding Allocation which prioritises major transport schemes across the South West over the next 10 years and which could include the Portishead rail link, the Ashton Vale to Temple Meads rapid transit route and the south Bristol link road.

Stephen Wray, director of Bristol's Cultural Development Partnership will head the group travelling to Germany which will include Bristol City FC's development adviser Guy Price, Richard Barrington of WESport and the council's European & regional officer Mareike Schmidt.

Mr Wray said: "This will be a real opportunity for Bristol to get a head start in having a good, hard look at the benefits and operational challenges of hosting a World Cup event.

"Out twinning links with Hannover are as strong as ever and we must thank Lord Mayor, Stefan Weil and the people of Hannover for their generosity and their support of Bristol's 2018 bid."

● To register your support for England's 2018 World Cup bid and to vote for Bristol as a host city, go to www.thisisbristol.co.uk/worldcup.