Fireworks over the Art Museum as the Welcome America Festival wrapped up in 2017
The 16-day festival features multicultural and multigenerational events, including free concerts, fireworks displays, block parties, a parade, and educational activities.
History
Philadelphia's main Independence Day celebration was started in 1993 by Welcome America, Inc., a non-profit organization. The first event highlighted the opening of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The series of events have relied heavily on corporate sponsorship, which enables the organization to keep all of the events free to attend.[1]
In 1995, Sunoco became a title sponsor of the event, and it was referred to as Sunoco Welcome America!.[2] The company continued as the main sponsor until 2010, when Wawa paid $3 million to be the sponsor for the following three years.[3] Wawa has continued as the title sponsor through 2023.
In May of 2020, Wawa Welcome America organizers announced that the festival would be a virtual experience due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the Wawa Welcome America festival officially extended its programming from 6-days to 16-days of celebrating, starting on Juneteenth and ending on the Fourth of July.
There was a shooting of two policemen in 2022 between the end of the concert and the start of the fireworks. This caused widespread panic for thousands of attendees due to both the rise in mass shootings in the United States and the Highland Park parade shooting happening earlier in the day.[4]
July 4th Concert & Fireworks
Every year a free outdoor concert is held on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The concert is followed by fireworks. The free live performance has been a Philadelphia tradition for more than two decades.[5] Past performers have included notable hometown acts and top-selling artists. In 2013, the concert was broadcast nationally on VH1, in addition to local network broadcast by NBC10.[6]
