Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Wednesday defended the city’s upcoming July Fourth concert, a seven-hour outdoor spectacle featuring performances from Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, The Roots, and more, amid concerns over the nearly 100-degree forecast and revelations that the event will cost taxpayers millions more than in years past.
The city has dealt with high temperatures before and has battle-tested personnel and protocols prepared for the evening, Parker told reporters at a news conference in front of the stage at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.
She also addressed the detractors head on.
“I do not apologize to anyone about making sure that the city of Philadelphia, as the sixth-largest city in the nation, the birthplace of democracy, we were going to have a celebration that is fitting to and for our historical significance and prominence,” Parker said. “One that could be seen, respected, and honored, not just in our city and commonwealth and nation but in the world.”
Parker described the concert as the largest July Fourth concert in the city’s history. For an occasion as momentous as the nation’s 250th anniversary in the city that bills itself the birthplace of America, Parker said Philadelphia must rise to the occasion and prove it can achieve ambitious undertakings.
Parker said her administration scaled up the experience, including moving the stage back to accommodate an estimated 300,000 concertgoers, and made the stage larger.
“We won’t get a second chance to do this over again, Philadelphia,” Parker said. “We only turn 250 years old once in a lifetime.”
Parker recalled feeling the mounting pressure to prove Philadelphia could rise to the occasion of honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary shortly after the start of her tenure as mayor.
“‘Philadelphia lacks ambition. They’re thinking too small. We need a leader. Where is the legacy project?’” Parker recalled from the discourse of the time. “The critics were right. Philadelphia, as the birthplace, we couldn’t do what every other city was doing. We couldn’t just do something that was average, something that was mediocre. What we did had to be a reflection of this moment and our history.”
Parker’s news conference came hours after The Inquirer reported online that this year’s July Fourth concert will cost taxpayers millions more than in years past because the mayor’s administration hired ESM Productions, a for-profit company, to put on the annual show. For years, the concert has been produced by Welcome America, a nonprofit established by the city.
The Inquirer reported that the city is set to pay ESM $15.5 million to put on the show, and that last year’s iteration of the Welcome America concert cost the organization about $3 million.
Parker defended ESM and its founder, Scott Mirkin, as “the gold standard in planning large-scale global events, not just in America but across the world.” And she vowed that the city would produce a “fiscal impact report” after the event to account for how much money the city spent on this year’s festivities.
She also noted that former Mayor Jim Kenney put his own stamp on the annual July Fourth concert when he took office in 2016 — and took some heat for it. The Roots had headlined the concert since 2009, but Kenney’s administration went a different direction and The Roots were sidelined.
Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson didn’t mince words at the time, writing on Facebook that the decision was “arrogance in the HIGHEST order courtesy of your new leader.”
When Parker took office, she knew she wanted the spotlight back on the beloved local hip-hop group.
“I’m proud to have The Roots back home,” Parker said.
In terms of weather and safety, the city has proven this summer that it can host large-scale events in the heat seamlessly, said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel.
The city has already hosted five World Cup games, which have gone off without a hitch, Bethel said. For the July Fourth event, the department will be executing one of its largest deployments since the papal visit in 2015. That will include hundreds of officers across Center City and many more at the stadium and along the Parkway.
“I want everybody to come and have a good time. Don’t mess up the party,” Bethel said.
In order to keep people cool, the city will run 40 air-conditioned cooling centers, 150 pools and spray grounds, enhanced homeless service outreach, and extra fire department medics, said Dominick Mireles, Philadelphia’s deputy managing director for community safety. Along the Parkway, there will be misting fans and shade structures, he added.
Parker said she’s confident every Philadelphian interested in participating will be able to do so safely and will look back on the day fondly.
“I want people to remember where they were when America turned 250 years old and what we did here in the place when it all happened,” Parker said.
