Philadelphia’s Made In America Festival Reviewed

Labor Day weekend marks the end of a Summer that saw yet another rise of dance music. The Electric Zoo festival on Randalls Island primarily dominates the Northeast, but the Made in America festival in Philadelphia was one that I had to check out. My first all-genre music festival I ended up having a spiritual experience after seeing Porter Robinson and then rushing over to the main stage to see Phoenix and finally hitting even another stage to see Deadmau5 do his thing. The whole scene reminded me of Ultra Music Festival in the way that several municipal streets were shut down in order to accommodate the sheer size of the festival. A large portion of the electronic acts like Rudimental, Feed Me, and Porter Robinson played on a stage that had a combination of woodchip and grass grounds to ease the ravers feet while dancing the night away.

Day 1:

Crowds of people walked the Philly streets on the way to their way to Budweiser's Made in America Fest, you could feel the excitement in the air.

3:50 PM - Dozens of cameras filled the media tent as we gained access to this massive festival. The real fun began once we stepped out onto the actual field.

4:30 PM - The Philly skyline stood proud as crowds of plurnt ravers walked through the main road of the festival to see Rudimental perform. The Rocawear merch bus was a staple of the festival, no one could miss it- with the murals painted on it.

5:30 PM - Rudimental makes the crowd go mental when they dropped "Waiting All Night" I couldn't believe how amazing the sound quality was, they played their songs better live than on record! People from UK, Canada, Chicago and various other places came just for them.

6:00 PM - TJR jokingly refers to himself as Moby upon ending his set on the freedom stage, but not before spinning an incredible set! People living in nearby apartment buildings all stuck their heads out to find out what all the cheering was about.

6:15 PM - 2chainz got real serious, and told the crowd that we needed to take a moment of silence for the recently murdered... Liberty Stage. We all bursted out into massive LOLz. "I can't believe that just happened!" - said a fan from Philly who was raving next to me named Carol.

7:15 PM - Porter Robinson blasts the crowd with vibrant saw waves which literally resulted in non stop cheering for his whole set. The moment he played "Language," tears started flowing from all the front row girls and we all jumped for joy.

photo credit: Iamangelkar

8:30 PM - Phoenix opens their set with the classic single "Lisztomania" as the screens flash bright teal, fuchsia and turquoise. The fountain in the middle of the field gave the show a much more serene vibe. 9:15 PM - Thomas Mars; the lead singer from Phoenix runs through the middle of the crowd to climb up the media tower and crowd surf, all displayed on the massive monitors in real time. Definitely one of the most epic shows of the festival and my entire life!

11:00 PM - Beyoncé is greeted with the most cheers that I've ever heard for an artist. Her performances jerked many tears. Every song was an entire show in itself, fully eqipped with a new theme, stage arrangement and clothing. Between her song performances Beyoncé played some original short films about love, life and her legacy as Mrs. Carter.

11:47 PM - Beyoncé showers the crowd with gold dust, leaving a little piece of her beauty inside all our hearts. Day 2: 3:15 PM - The second day was a lot more packed since a lot of New Yorkers came through due to ezoo's cancellation. The Underachievers rocked the skate park stage with their crowd of indigos while skaters thrashed the park in the background! #beastcoast

4:45 PM - Alunageorge went one deeper in their sultry set, playing classics such as "You Know You Like It" and "Attracting Flies." I was glad to see that they were also playing with a live band, it really drew the crowd in.

5:30 PM - Kendrick Lamar gives the audience a huge shoutout as he ended his set, "You paid good money to be here so enjoy this, it's your moment!"

6:00 PM - GTA drops their hit "Turn It Up" whilst holding an autographed 'Ace' bottle which was a gift from HOV himself; whom they properly shouted out before they dropped the bass.

6:15 PM - What seemed like all of Philly turned the fudge up for Wiz Khalifa as he rocked the Rocky Stage with his live band and DJ! He even brought out his wife Amber Rose, Juicy J and the whole Taylor Gang!

8:00 PM - Nero plays his classic hit singles such as "Promises" "Must Be The Feeling" and "Innocence" as well as modern gems like Dog Blood's newest release "Middle Finger Pt. 2" I loved his rare performance.

9:00 PM - Calvin Harris dropped main stage classics that had the whole crowd singing along, playing everything from his old single "Flashback" to his newer material with Rihanna, Ellie Goulding but what I personally loved the most was his live version of Florence Welsh's "You've Got The Love"

11:00 PM - Nine Inch Nails came back to life with an anticipated performance where they played some unreleased material from their forthcoming album, Hesitation Marks.

Made in America made a statement as a festival which is this: Music is universal and has no limits, which was the same spirit that made America and all it's people into what we are today.

Written by: Mark Wolf & Ralphio Louis