Beyonce and Nine Inch Nails top an eclectic lineup for Budweiser’s second annual Made In America Festival, scheduled to return to Philadelphia for Labor Day weekend on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Jay-Z once again curated this year’s roster, but will not perform unlike last year’s headlining set. Tickets went on sale Wednesday to American Express cardmembers and fans of the Budweiser Made In America Facebook page exclusively through Tuesday April 16 at 10 p.m. ET. Public on sale begins Wednesday April 17.
Other performers announced today, via Made In America’s Spotify playlist, include Queens of the Stone Age, Deadmau5, Phoenix, Calvin Harris, Empire of the Sun, Imagine Dragons, Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Miguel, Public Enemy, Nero, 2 Chainz, Gaslight Anthem, A$AP Rocky, Walk The Moon, Solange, Feed Me, Porter Robinson, Wolfgang Gartner, Emeli Sande, Haim, Schoolboy Q, Ab Soul, GTA, Robert DeLong, Red Light, Rudimental, Aluna George, Jay Rock, Jessie Rose and TJR.
“The point of having that diversity in our music lineup is that we’re trying to expose the people to different types of music,” says Paul Chibe, Budweiser’s VP of marketing. “Much like last year, where if you never saw Pearl Jam but you’re a Jay-Z fan, we want fans of Beyonce or Calvin Harris or Wiz Khalifa to have the opportunity to see Nine Inch Nails, or stuff they might not have seen for a while, like Public Enemy. That eclectic mix creates an opportunity for us to really show the impact of music and culture.”
The inaugural Made In America was a notable success, having grossed $5 million in ticket sales and attracting nearly 80,000 people, according to Billboard Boxscore. This year’s festival will also once again benefit the United Ways of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, Lancaster County, PA. The festival will also be produced for a second year by ad agency Translation, in which Jay-Z is a partner.
A documentary inspired by the festival, directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and Jay-Z, is set for release later this summer prior to the second festival. Chibe says the film will announce a distributor in the coming weeks, and has already seen 20 minutes of completed footage from the film. “The narrative story of the festival and then Jay-Z is gonna be a great movie and I think something that people will be talking about when it comes to artist expression and people living up to their potential and talent.”
Made In America will also be preceded by a series of 30 Budweiser-sponsored events across the country, featuring performances from smaller acts like Big Gigantic, Savoy, Paper Diamond and White Panda.
And keep an eye out for Budweiser on Jay-Z’s other concert outing – the Legends of the Summer arena tour with Justin Timberlake, who signed on as Bud Light Platinum’s creative director in February. “We’re working together on that right now,” Chibe says, noting that Budweiser has a meeting with Team Timberlake next week to discuss the next plans for their partnership in 2013. “The thing is that he pulled this thing together really fast. That’s why you see the tour is kind of scheduled back and forth — they had to go with when the venues were available vs. a nice orderly progression around the country. But we’re figuring out how to work together around the tour and discussing the next round of creative for Bud Light Platinum.” [Billboard.biz]
