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Made in America is Cancelled (UPDATED)

Kyle Pagan

By Kyle Pagan

Published:

Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Wow. I didn’t see this coming:

https://twitter.com/MIAFestival/status/1688951085459779584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1688951085459779584%7Ctwgr%5E3a569e5e975ba4897bc6bc914d93b5650a1e8ee0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fox29.com%2Fnews%2Fmade-in-america-2023-canceled-due-to-severe-circumstances-will-return-in-2024

“Due to severe circumstances out of production control, the 2023 Made in America festival will no longer be taking place.”

Gotta think the “severe circumstances out of production control” has something to do with the multiple lawsuits Lizzo is facing for sexual harassment. She was set to headline this year with SZA. Still I’m shocked that someone like Jay-Z couldn’t find a headliner in the next three weeks. I mean the guy has a laundry list of artists under Roc Nation and a contact list longer than his discography. He couldn’t put a call in for a favor?

I know they plan on being back in 2024, but could this being the nail in the coffin for Made In America in Philly? Most thought the lineup was underwhelming this year and it feels like that’s been the case more and more:

 

Plus the constant bitching from neighbors about noise and traffic has threatened it before. Jim Kenney tried to ban it from the Parkway in 2018 only to renege after Jay-Z threatened to take it out of the city entirely.

Why would you want to throw a concert and make all this money for the city when all you hear is the constant bitching from people who don’t appreciate it? Take Joe Batory for instance when he wrote this op-ed for the Inky back in 2019:

“The greatest misuse of the area is the annual Made in America farce over Labor Day weekend. Perverse blasting music pours out continuously from the fenced-in Art Museum area for hours on end until midnight, shaking rooms in area homes.

There is absolutely no rhyme or reason in allowing this bizarre happening in an area of artistic beauty. The Art Museum area stands on its own merits. Its museums and quiet, tree-lined beauty are world class. Holding a rock concert in this area of quiet gracefulness usurps the aesthetic or intellectual experience for many thousands of local and world visitors. Blaspheming the Art Museum area with blasting noise, closed-off sections of the Parkway, fences around sculptures, portable toilets, limited parking, detours, and excessive traffic jams create surreal happenings that simply do not belong.”

These are the kinds of people who set the city back. Joe is literally complaining about artistic beauty shutting off access to artistic beauty. Shake your ass to some Bad Bunny and shut the fuck up.

Or take Cameron J. McTavish in his Letter to the Editor before the 2017 NFL Draft:

“The dark and foreboding temporary structure that obscures the main facade of the most beautiful building in America and clogs the artery of our fair city’s grand boulevard is a disgraceful display of tasteless and greedy interests that put the priorities of a for-profit, private monopoly (the NFL) over the public domain (“Mega events mar Art Museum area,” Friday). Aside from the inconvenience of weeks of snarled traffic, the waste and inefficiency of setting up and dismantling such a structure is considerable.

A more graceful, elegant, and sustainable way of hosting large-scale events on the Ben Franklin Parkway can be facilitated by constructing architect Alvin Holm’s proposed Grace Kelly Memorial Amphitheater. It was proposed in the early 1980s and would easily accommodate 3,000 to 4,000 spectators for a variety of events, including concerts, festivals, dance performances – even the NFL draft.”

Hey dummy. Get your head out of your ass. You think your precious amphitheater that accommodates 4,000 people is enough for the 250k that showed up to draft weekend? We broke records. This isn’t a night out at Beethoven’s 11th Symphony, this is the best football town in America. These people that complain don’t even have a grip on reality.

I lived in that Art Museum neighborhood for seven years. I loved when Made in America would set up. You had a little sense of pride that they chose your neighborhood. All the big events were typically in South Philly or Center City or the waterfront. It was cool when the NFL Draft or the Wawa Welcome to America concert was in walking distance from your place. Not to mention everything it does for the bars and restaurants around there. They circle this weekend every year. It’s sucks they won’t get that this year and might not ever again.

UPDATE:

NBC Philadelphia is reporting it is because “ticket sales were not good.” If you believe that excuse I’ve got beachfront property in Iowa I’d like to sell you. Ticket sales not being good doesn’t equate to “severe circumstances outside our control”. That’s code for “Lizzo just got accused of making her dancers eat bananas out of strippers vaginas so she can’t perform and instead of finding another headliner the insurance money will cover our asses and Jay-Z will write it off in his taxes.” That would’ve been a better press release:

Kyle Pagan
Kyle Pagan

Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com

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