Rap Icon To Headline Philly's 2025 Wawa Welcome America Festival

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Famed rapper LL Cool J will headline the upcoming Wawa Welcome America festival in Philadelphia this summer, Mayor Cherelle Parker announced Tuesday.

The festival will be held on July 4 along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, as it has been in recent years.

The news was announced in a special reveal Tuesday morning with the Mayor and a small crowd gathered at Eakins Oval, near the location of the celebration.

"I will have on my flat shoes," Parker said. "And I am personally inviting America, and Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia to the celebration."

A pioneer of rap and hip hop as well as a star in movies, LL Cool J has won two Grammy awards.

Philadelphia native and Grammy winner Jazmine Sullivan will be the opener for the event.

Other performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Parker said that the city was committed to continuing making the event family friendly and free.

Welcome America will feature a slate of events and activities leading up to the concert.
Various related events scheduled for the weeks leading up to July 4 can be viewed online here.