Made in America Cancelled for the Second Year in a Row
RIP MIA. No chance it’s coming back after being cancelled for the second straight year:
— Made In America Festival (@MIAFestival) April 3, 2024
This sucks. I liked MIA. I don’t think we’ll ever get the real story why it died. Maybe concert festivals are slowly fading away. Your big ones like Coachella and Lollapalooza will continue to stay because they’re cultural phenomena that people all over the world travel to. People aren’t coming into Philly on Labor Day Weekend in droves. You see it with Firefly in Delaware as well. That used to be massive. Now they’ve cancelled their festival two years in a row due to diminishing attendance. The big festival bubble has popped. We got a little insight into that when Budweiser pulled their title sponsorship from MIA in 2018. The bill also was lacking star power in recent years. Maybe the move is now smaller festivals with more options like The Roots Picnic. They don’t only have rap and R&B sets, but also a podcast and comedy stage. Dave Chappelle sold out the Wells Fargo Center on Day 1 last year. Day 2 and 3 were at the Mann Center. More collaboration around the city and using its various resources seems to be the move over building a giant entertainment district around Eakins Oval for a two weeks, which is probably smart and a smarter way to spend money.
Still though, MIA was definitely something to be proud of in this city. Pearl Jam, Beyonce, Jay Z, Kanye (twice), Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber all headlined here. Megastars and a major record label picking Philly over NY or DC gave us some credibility. I just hope this wasn’t some legislative bullshit like Jim Kenney tried to pull back in 2018. People who complain about events in their backyard in the sixth most populated city in America is bullshit and it’s what keeps us from advancing. Just like building another failing mall on top of an already failing mall and then complaining about it when someone wants to build something that will actually work.
Kinkead: the best MIA performance was Nine Inch Nails in 2013