When Labor Day weekend 2017 wound down at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway there was a lot of talk amongst concert goers on the future of the Made in America music festival.

Made in America is a Philadelphia based Music Festival started by Jay-Z. The festival began in September 2012. The contract to run the festival in Philadelphia ended right after the 2017 festival. People were very curious on whether a new contract was looming or if this marked the end of Made in America.

A new, more lucrative contract was made reported by Variety.com: a ten year, 200 million dollar deal between Live Nation and Jay-Z. That deal is not exclusively Made in America; it means Live Nation will also be sponsoring the rest of Jay-Z’s concerts and events. This contract helped ensured Made in America for at least one more year.

When the festival began in 2012, according to a report from CBS Philadelphia, Live Nation made some promises, including that they would be responsible for expenses of all personnel and they will clean up the parkway after the festival. The total cost estimate for the contract was 501,000 dollars, 220,000 of those dollars were spent towards police. These would were put in place to insure the up keep and well being of the Ben Franklin Parkway.

Ticket sales totalled out last year for five million dollars, and with the concert coming back for another year an influx in tickets will be expected.

With the presale tickets coming out some people, especially from this area, have already flocked to buy tickets. Villa junior Izzie Barringer is a two-time attendee of the Made in America and is an avid lover of the festival.

“My greatest moments is probably getting [on my friend’s] shoulders and seeing the crowd,” she said. “I love being able to ride the train down and go down with my friends and just have fun.”
Barringer said she would be in attendance once again.

Junior Evan Lotz said he has attended Made in America twice. Some of his favorite sets of the last two years were A Boogie, 21 Savage and Ugly God.

Lotz will be attending Made in America this year. “I love rap and I love RnB,” Lotz said. “I’m really into hip hop and when you have all of your favorite artists that you listen to in the car it’s pretty dope.”

Concert goers are waiting for the 2018 lineup to be released. Presale tickets are on sale until May 6 at 10:00 p.m. Anyone who is planning on joining the festivities this Labor Day weekend: be safe and have fun.