The 2023 Made in America festival is canceled

Made in America has been canceled.

The annual two-day music festival held on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway during Labor Day weekend will not happen this year, according to the festival’s official channels. The festival, founded by Jay-Z, has been a Philly fixture since 2012.

Organizers released a statement Tuesday citing “severe circumstances outside of production control.” “This decision has been difficult and has not been made lightly nor without immense deliberation,” the statement read.

All tickets will be refunded and, according to the group’s statement, the festival will return in 2024.

No explanation was given Tuesday on what “severe circumstances” led to the abrupt cancellation.

Artists SZA and Lizzo were set to coheadline the event.

Lizzo is currently at the center of a lawsuit filed by her former tour dancers, accusing the artist of sexual harassment and of allowing a hostile work environment. In an Instagram post last week, she called the accusations “false” and “too outrageous to not be addressed.”

Made in America was her only remaining listed tour date.

A spokesperson from Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s entertainment and management company, would not comment on the cancellation beyond the group’s official statement. Concert promoter Live Nation, which coproduces the event but does not book the acts, also did not comment.

In a statement, Mayor Jim Kenney said he was “disappointed to hear” of the festival’s cancellation.

“Since 2012, Made in America has grown into a Philly tradition on Labor Day Weekend, celebrating music and promoting worthwhile social causes,” Kenney said.

The cancellation is a “blow” to stagehands workers who were expecting to work in the days leading up to and after Labor Day weekend, said Michael Barnes, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 8.

He said the annual festival is the local union’s biggest live concert event “by far” and pays members a total of $1 million each year.

”This is going to have a significant negative impact in regards to the stagehands’ yearly package,” Barnes said. “People count on that. For that to cancel within weeks of the concert is overly impactful to the live event and entertainment workers.”

Mark Lynch Jr., business manager of IBEW Local 98, also called the festival’s cancellation “disappointing,” and said that although it “will cost us some valuable work hours, this is just a temporary setback.” The union looks forward to working with Made In America in coming years, Lynch said.

The cancellation will result in an “extremely unfortunate” loss of revenue for the city — particularly hotels, restaurants, and bars — said Larry Dubinski, president and CEO of the Franklin Institute.

Dubinski said that every year since the inaugural Made in America, the science center had adapted its plans around the music festival. This year, for instance, the Franklin Institute is closing “Disney100: The Exhibition” on Aug. 27, which is weeks earlier than usual for its special exhibitions. Even with the cancellation of Made in America, it’s impossible to extend the Disney show, he said.

This marks the second time Made in America has been canceled. The festival did not happen in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It returned to the Parkway in 2021, and again last year when Tyler, the Creator and Bad Bunny were headliners, drawing a huge crowd on the festival’s final day.

In 2018, Kenney discussed moving the festival off the Parkway and away from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, prompting an outcry from fans and Jay-Z. At the time, the rapper and executive — who headlined the festival in 2012 and 2017 — wrote in an op-ed for The Inquirer that Made In America had a positive $102.8 million economic impact on Philadelphia in its first six years and employed more than 1,000 Philadelphians a day.

The Kenney administration eventually reversed course. The gated festival has continued to draw crowds as large as 50,000 ticket-holders a day.

“The Made in America festival is an incredible opportunity to showcase our city and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on a national scale, so the cancellation of the festival is disappointing for those who plan to attend over Labor Day weekend,” Kim Reynolds, chief advancement officer of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, said in an email.

Made In America, however, has not always been viewed as entirely positive. The year the city considered moving the festival from the Parkway, a study came out that showed almost all institutions on the Parkway saw reduced admissions during large special events such as Made in America, and even said that sound vibrations could damage the Art Museum’s collection.

“While (the) study in 2018 showed the impact of the festival on the surrounding Parkway community,” Reynolds added, “we realize the larger impact this major event has on the city of Philadelphia as a whole. We hope those with plans for the festival will still plan to visit, as our city has so much to offer.”

As for this year, “we do not know what the impact will be at this time,” Alethia Calbeck, chief communications officer for Visit Philadelphia, said by email.

Philadelphia was the third most popular Airbnb destination in 2021 during the Labor Day weekend, in large part due to the festival.

In addition to SZA and Lizzo, other acts booked for this year’s Made In America festival included Miguel, Ice Spice, Latto, Metro Boomin, Tems, and Lil Yachty. It was expected that more acts would be added closer to the date of the festival. Tickets, which went on sale in April before the lineup was announced, ranged in price from about $187 to more than $800 for VIP passes.

Staff reporters Peter Dobrin, Rita Giordano, Anna Orso, and Ariana Perez-Castells contributed to this article.