PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pop singer Bebe Rexha and rapper Flo Rida will headline Philadelphia's free July Fourth concert this year. Welcome America is not only back, it will be a record 16 days long, with old favorites, such as Hoagie Day, and new features centering around a new partnership with the African American Museum in Philadelphia.
After being staged last year during the pandemic's first wave, televised without a live audience from The Met, Welcome America this year, on Sunday, July 4, will take place at the Mann Center for Performing Arts in Fairmount Park. The show will once again be followed by a display of fireworks over the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where people, this year, will be allowed to gather.
The Philly Pops performance on July 3 has also been moved to the Mann Center. Both concerts are free, but tickets are required — available by lottery, starting June 19. NBC10 will broadcast the shows on television and online.
There are multiple concerts. Chill Moody will be playing at Penn’s Landing on June 26, and there’s a gospel concert on Independence Mall on June 27.
The key new element to this year’s festival is that it will combine celebrations of Fourth of July and Juneteenth, the day, 89 years after the Declaration of Independence, when the last of the nation's African American slaves were emancipated.
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“While July 4, 1776, is traditionally recognized as the day freedom and equality was declared for all Americans, we all know by now that was not the case for many people living here at the time. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States," AAMP Vice President Ivan Henderson said.
"[Welcome America] is coming back, but it is necessarily coming back changed, coming back better, coming back to make improvements."
Several new features have been added to this year's festivities, including "Freedom-Liberty" a moving Black history exhibit, and "Black Gotham Experience" with artist Kamau Ware, as well as new historic re-enactments and youth storytelling at the Barnes Foundation.
Welcome America CEO Michael Del Bene calls it a trailblazing moment, "as we deconstruct the largest July Fourth festival in our country and reconstruct it with a new narrative and a bold new perspective."
Del Bene admits planning has been a challenge.
“Our festival, like our city and our nation, has had to contend not only with the question of how do we plan and deliver a festival in the age of COVID, but how do we do it better and how do we build a festival that is more inclusive and reflective of the fabric of our nation?” he said.
Another new feature will be a street festival with entertainers and other attractions at City Hall.
Mayor Jim Kenney says Welcome America will live up to its reputation as the gold standard for celebrating the holiday.
"This year’s festival may not look the way it has in previous years, but nothing can diminish the energy, excitement and electricity that can be felt in every neighborhood and community as we come together to give our city something to really celebrate," he said.