Made in America 2015

As a Philadelphia native, I was excited for my first Made in America, the festival’s fourth iteration, taking place right in the middle of the Ben Franklin Parkway.

I’ve been to festivals before, but they’re usually smaller, more genre-based festivals like Electric Zoo and The Root’s Picnic. Made in America, on the other hand, is rather overwhelming, with five stages and more than 50 artists. Getting the lay of the land, I walked from the entrance to the main stage located on the other side of the grounds where Vic Mensa was opening up.

As an electronic music fan, I circled round back and stuck by the rave-oriented Freedom Stage, where I got to enjoy Botnek, Cedric Gervais, Duke Dumont and Claude Vonstroke. There was one awesome moment during the Axwell^Ingrosso show where they played a house remix of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” complete with towering infernos shooting into the air. My favorite EDM performance was Bassnectar at the Liberty Stage, who managed to incorporate classic rock cuts like Nirvana’s “In Bloom” and even brought out Dead Prez for the proto-dubstep “Hip-Hop.”

There were a few conflicts, and in the afternoon the crowds made it difficult to get to the next stage on time. The city estimates that a record 130,000 attended the event, which might be pushing the limits of what Made in America can handle. Food and bathroom lines were ridiculous, though that’s par for the course at a festival of this size.

Meek Mill’s set was extremely energetic and had an awesome moment when he brought Nicki Minaj out as a surprise guest, but it was Beyoncé who really stole the show. Nearly six months since her last gig, many considered her show to be the best. Her career-spanning set opened with the trippy 50 Shades of Love remix to “Crazy In Love” before cutting into the energetic original. Queen Bey went into a string of Destiny’s Child’s hits before closing out with her solo singles. An estimated 70,000 were in front of the Rocky Stage for her performance, easily the biggest of the weekend.