Topline
A virtual portal that connected New York to Dublin with a continuous live video stream, which had closed for nearly a week over the summer due to “inappropriate behavior” before its permanent closure in September, relocated to Philadelphia this week, connecting the city to Dublin and locations in Poland and Lithuania.
The Philadelphia portal opened on Tuesday. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Key Facts
Philadelphia’s portal, located in the city’s Love Park, opened Tuesday and rotates between livestreams in Dublin, Vilnius, Lithuania, and Lublin, Poland, with another planned to launch in Piaui, Brazil.
Some social media users poked fun at the irony of the portal relocating to Philadelphia—famous for the wild behavior of its passionate sports fans—after the New York-Dublin portal had already caused controversy for “inappropriate behavior.”
Some wild antics have already garnered attention on social media, including a Tuesday night performance by “Philly Elmo”—a local celebrity who travels the city in an Elmo costume and dances with his entourage of drummers.
Global onlookers have already shown Philadelphia love, including a man in Lithuania who held up a sign that said “Go Birds,” a reference to the Philadelphia Eagles, a Dublin man who unzipped his jacket to reveal a Philadelphia Phillies jersey and another Dublin onlooker who wore an Eagles shirt.
The city’s 2026 Director Michael Newmuis told CBS News Philadelphia it welcomed the portal as a way to invite the world to the city ahead of major events it will host in 2026, including the 250th anniversary of the United States and six World Cup matches.
Surprising Fact
The portal in Philadelphia is already cracked, but it wasn’t because of rambunctious onlookers, city officials told CBS News Philadelphia. The portal, a nearly 12-foot-tall structure with an 8-foot-tall screen, cracked during installation this week because some screws were fastened too tightly, putting pressure on the screen and causing it to break.
What Happened To The New York Portal?
A portal connecting New York, from a location near the Flatiron Building in Manhattan, to Dublin, was activated in May. The portal was temporarily taken offline just days after it went live, and remained offline for nearly a week, because of what the Dublin City Council called “inappropriate behavior” from “a very small minority of people” that was amplified on social media. Some wild antics from onlookers at the portal went viral, including multiple people who flashed the camera. In one tweet liked nearly 500,000 times, an onlooker from the Dublin side held up a sign that said “RIP Pop Smoke”—the rapper shot and killed in 2020—seconds before another onlooker held up a picture of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Other bizarre interactions included people pretending to do drugs in front of the portal and one woman reportedly being arrested in Dublin after dancing provocatively against the screen. The portal reopened with added fencing and blurring technology that would activate if onlookers got too close to the screen. Despite the viral antics, many interactions through the New York-Dublin portal were more wholesome, including proposals and reunions between distant friends. The New York-Dublin portal closed permanently on Sept. 2, which the creators said was because it was always planned to be a temporary exhibition and that the portal would continue to move to new locations.
Key Background
The New York and Philadelphia portals are the first to open in the United States, though the first portals linking Vilnius and Lublin opened in 2021. The portal project is led by Benediktas Gylys, a Lithuanian investor and artist, who called it a “bridge that unifies and an invitation to rise above prejudices and disagreements that belong to the past.” He has said he wants the portal network to continue to expand to more cities across the world.
Further Reading
The Viral Dublin-New York Portal Reopens After 6-Day Shutdown Over Flashing, Inappropriate Behavior (Forbes)
The Portal cracked after arriving in Philadelphia, but not for the reason you might think (CBS News)
The artist behind the short-lived portal linking New York and Dublin: ‘People got carried away’ (The Guardian)
