This past weekend wrapped up the summer-long tour of
Budweiser’s Made in America Music Festival
in Philadelphia, PA. The city summer
tour was formed last summer by the ingenious mind of Sean “Jay-Z” Carter and
the good people at Budweiser, promoting patriotism and American culture through
music, art and of course, Budweiser.
Naturally, the tour ends in the historic streets of Philadelphia with a
full blown bash of big named artists and their amazing music. Similar to last year, Jay-Z did what he does
best in promotion and was able to put together a stellar line-up giving the
young music fanatics all they could handle.
Kicking the weekend off on the right foot Saturday morning
by proposing to my special lady friend, I was sure to have an amazing Made In America festival. With big names like Calvin Harris, Beyonce,
Imagine Dragons and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (just to name a few), how could
this festival not be entertaining?
The diversity of the performers drove the diversity of the
crowd. What was amazing was seeing the
wide range of ethnic backgrounds, assorted beliefs and all of shapes and sizes
let go and just enjoy the entertainment. Politically-active Macklemore
continued to preach his message of peace and equality in between his
high-intense performances; and the crowd LOVED it! Watching Caucasians, African-Americans, Asian-Americans etc.
rap right alongside each other to Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar, and 2Chainz was
awesome! Circling up and starting
dance-offs for Calvin Harris, Beyonce, and even Nine Inch Nails (yeah, that’s
right, NIN) between gays and straights, male and female was so much fun! It’s like everyone left their stereotypes/
baggage at the
check-in, rocked their red, white & blue outfits and let go of their egos to just have fun; that’s what
these festivals are all about!
EDM (Electronic Dance Music) was in full effect this weekend
with DJ’s like Deadmau5, Calvin Harris, Nero, The Gaslight Anthem, Robert
DeLong and many others. This was my
first time experiencing the live dub step shows and they did not
disappoint. Worried that I would get the
same feeling/headache I get when I’d walk into an Abercrombie and Fitch, I
decided to keep an open mind going into these concerts. It was great to hear and see what this new
wave of music was bringing to a live show as the visual effects were unlike
anything I had seen. This was certainly
a pleasant surprise!
Rap and Hip Hop was represented well with major artists like
ASAP Rocky, Wiz Khalifa, 2Chainz, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore, and even Public
Enemy among others. It’s been perceived that
live performances in rap have been downward spiraling to nothing short of shouting
every other word with a large entourage on yelling on microphones. This was definitely not the case for these
performances as the crowd was singing right along to their favorite songs.
Rock and roll had its moments this weekend as well with
bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Phoenix, Nine Inch Nails, Empire of the Sun
and others. In fact, Nine Inch Nails was the headliner for Sunday night! Now, if you’re like me and thought Nine Inch
Nails was a heavy metal, screaming, in-your-face rock band, you’re only half
right. Throw in a DJ and some funky
underlying beats and you've got a very unique and entertaining show!
Between the three stages, performances went almost back-to-back
as one artist would end, the next stage lit right up, keeping the energy and
momentum upbeat for the fans. It was
well executed and definitely a major hit.
The festival was a blast and a success Mr. Carter. Having your wife, Beyonce, shut it down on
the first night singing “Single Ladies” really put the cherry on the top for
our special day!
