24 Apr 2024
Way back on July 4, 1776, the United States of America was born right here in Philadelphia.
The very next year, newly minted Americans threw a giant party to commemorate the anniversary in the place where it happened. Fireworks, bonfires, lights, decorations, music and joyful gatherings filled the streets of Philadelphia. “American Independence was celebrated here with a festivity and ceremony becoming the occasion,” recalled Founding Father John Adams.
Over the next two-and-a-half centuries, Philadelphians continued to celebrate Independence Day much the same … just a lot bigger every year.
But as 2026 approaches, America — and Philadelphia in particular — is poised to take that celebration to the next level as the nation commemorates its Semiquincentennial.
Everything You Need to Know About the U.S. Semiquincentennial
While the Fourth of July is always big in Philadelphia, Independence Day 2026 for America's 250th is going to be a year-long party you're not going to want to miss.
Over the course of the Semiquincentennial (a word you'll start hearing a lot, so get used to saying it), concerts, parades, exhibitions, events, festivals, sports, celebrities, food, drink and all sorts of good times will be waiting here for you.
As we inch closer to that magic date of July 4, 2026, more and more details and announcements will emerge about what to expect. In the meantime, here's a little primer on what we know now and what you need to know to party with us.
What Does the Semiquincentennial Commemorate?
It comes in many names — Semiquincentennial, Sestercentennial, Quarter Millennial — but they all refer to the same thing: 250 years since that historic Fourth of July moment in 1776, exactly two-and-a-half centuries since America's birth, when the Founding Fathers declared independence right here in the heart of Philadelphia.
From sea to shining sea, Americans from the tip of Florida to the Alaskan archipelago will be gearing up to celebrate this milestone birthday. But as many already know, there's no better place to celebrate America than in its birthplace.
Each year, tens of thousands of visitors and residents descend upon Philadelphia to experience Independence Day, Philly style. But for the Semiquincentennial, Philly will truly be the place to be, and not just during the first week of July, but all year long.
Philadelphia and its historic countryside are prepped to throw a year-long party of the century with a slew of festivities and fun events as the city welcomes America and celebrates Philly's singular role in the founding of the nation.
Why You Should Care About the Semiquincentennial
Obtained by city “founder” William Penn in the early 1680s, Philadelphia is the ancestral homeland of the Lenape — Indigenous people who reside in the city to this day. Penn strove to make Philadelphia — his “holy experiment” in freedom — a place of inclusion by opening up his colony to all faiths, offering safety from persecution. But in a lesson of how far the young nation still had (and has) to go, Penn, a slaveowner himself, would only go as far as promoting what he considered “good treatment” and schooling for enslaved people and pledging to release his own slaves upon his death.
Over the next 300 years, Philadelphia has often found itself in the civil rights spotlight, with local leaders, activists and allies striving to meet the moment for diversity, inclusion and equal justice. Through the trials, tribulations, protests and more, the city — long a place where Americans of all walks of life and ideologies gathered to celebrate the best our nation has to offer — has taken, and continues to take, steps toward better equality and tolerance.
It's that variety of cultures, backgrounds and perspectives that Philadelphia — and the nation as a whole — embodies that will be on full display as America comes together to celebrate the Semiquincentennial, along with our similarities, shared hopes and common goals.
What You Should Do to Celebrate the Semiquincentennial
Although the planning for America's 250th is very early in the process, rest assured there will be a ton to experience for the Fourth of July and throughout the year, including parties, parades, festivals, concerts, sporting events, exhibitions and more.
More events will be announced as we get closer to the big day, but plenty of events have already been scheduled, from supersized versions of some of Philly's favorite annual celebrations to one-time-only happenings you won't want to miss.
An important note: All events are subject to change.
Welcome America
The cornerstone of Independence Day festivities in Philadelphia is the annual multi-week-long Welcome America festival, one of the region's most popular annual events.
The 2026 version will be bigger than ever, including the free nighttime party on the Ben Franklin Parkway with live music from big-name pop stars (past performers include Demi Lovato, Ed Sheeran, Mary J. Blige and Pitbull) and a massive fireworks show above the Philadelphia Museum of Art with thousands lined up along the Parkway to take it all in.
Celebration of Freedom Ceremony
The morning of Fourth of July brings the annual Celebration of Freedom Ceremony, the day's formal kickoff at Independence Hall. The patriotic ceremony celebrates everyday Americans locally and throughout the country, and features special celebrity and VIP speakers, presentations of national humanitarian and service awards and, of course, a public reading of the Declaration of Independence nearly 250 years to the day after it was first read aloud, on this very spot on July 8, 1776.
Salute to America Independence Day Parade
Philadelphia loves a parade. While Philly's Thanksgiving Day parade is the oldest in the nation, its Salute to America Independence Day Parade is its largest Fourth of July procession, annually convening thousands of dancers, marching bands, drum corps, color guards, drill teams, acrobats and celebrities along the nearly one-and-a-half mile route from Old City to Center City.
2026 FIFA World Cup
The eyes of the world will quite literally be on Philadelphia as Lincoln Financial Field (usually home to the NFL's Eagles) becomes one of just 11 U.S. stadiums to host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, with five pool play matchups in June plus a July 4th Round of 16 knockout tilt at what Philadelphians affectionately call “The Linc.” The full match schedule is below:
- June 14th, Group Stage
- June 19th, Group Stage
- June 22nd, Group Stage
- June 25th, Group Stage
- June 27th, Group Stage
- July 4th, Round of 16
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 96th annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game comes to Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia in July 2026 as the Midsummer Classic returns to Philly for the first time in 30 years (and first ever at “The Bank”).
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament
A college basketball hotbed for a century, Philadelphia will feel the March Madness firsthand in 2026. Philly's Wells Fargo Center was the first site named to host six games during the First and Second rounds of the 87th NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
2026 PGA Championship
The 2026 PGA Championship, one of professional golf's four major tournaments, will crown its champion at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Delaware County in May. Past winners have included Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
National Semiquincentennial Convention
The National Semiquincentennial Convention, the primary civic kickoff event for the week of the Fourth of July, will take place over two days, as both citizens and celebrities from across the nation gather in state-by-state delegations to discuss social and political issues of the day in an Olympic Village-style jamboree. The massive cultural festival will be accompanied by forums, panels, concerts, film screenings, art exhibitions and much more.
Children's World Fair
The Please Touch Museum, the Philadelphia Zoo, and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts are proposing the creation of a Children's World Fair in 2026, drawing inspiration from the 1876 World's Fair held in Fairmount Park. Spearheaded by the Please Touch Museum, the fair aims to engage the youngest generation with programming on various topics such as arts, science, technology, and citizenship. Each institution will align its offerings with its core mission, with plans including workshops, performances, and activations. The fair will also feature a "village" for artisans and vendors, funded through a $7 million to $10 million budget sourced from the institutions, governmental funding, charitable groups, private donors, and corporate sponsors. No permanent structures will be added to the Centennial District.
Celebrations at Philly Museums
Museums across the city will offer special exhibits and programming surrounding the 250th celebration.
One of 2026's expected highlights will be the opening of a brand-new museum dedicated to the history of the American economy in the historic First Bank of the United States at Independence National Historical Park. Built in 1797 under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton, the building was the home of the nation's first centralized national bank and the precursor to the Federal Reserve. The new museum, which will make the building publicly accessible for the first time in over a half-century, will focus on the bank's important role in the development of the U.S. economy in the country's earliest days.
Philly's Museum of the American Revolution will host special programming for the 250th, including a new exhibition entitled The Declaration's Journey: 250 Years of America's Founding Document. The exhibit, which explores how the Declaration of Independence influenced similar documents in over 100 other nations and its implications on modern society, will open in 2025 and run throughout the Semiquincentennial year.
And the Please Touch Museum — which first opened during the Bicentennial year of 1976 and whose current Fairmount Park building was constructed for the 1876 Centennial — will open Discovering Democracy, a kid-focused nearly $2 million dollar exhibit for 2026 introducing children to the concept of democracy and its role in their lives.
More museum commemorations will be announced as 2026 approaches.
U.S. Military Founding Celebrations
The United States armed forces kick off America's Semiquincentennial with two of their own celebrations.
Leading up to the big year, the U.S. Navy celebrates its 250th birthday with Homecoming 250 in October 2025, which includes a historic gathering of ships on the Delaware River representing every major military conflict in which the Navy has participated.
The very next month the U.S. Marine Corps will then celebrate its 250th birthday with another assemblage of ships on the Delaware, as well as christening a recreation of historic Tun Tavern, the former watering hole near Penn's Landing where the Marines were founded in 1775.
A Quick Philly History: Only 250 Years in the Making
Almost every schoolkid across the nation knows the importance of Philadelphia to the founding of the nation, with the city earning its title of America's birthplace by hosting the First Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, as well as serving as the nation's first capital. Stories of Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Betsy Ross and the events that occurred in colonial Philadelphia are typically standard curriculum from social studies class to Schoolhouse Rock.
Equally important are the stories of those revolutionary Philadelphians from succeeding generations who, following the city's founding, did the hard and dangerous work to help bring the dream of equality and equity to all. That includes diverse leaders, educators, activists and advocates such as Octavius V. Catto, William Still, Paul Robeson, Barbara Gittings, Gloria Casarez and many others.
And by playing the primary role in the nation's first Fourth of July, Philadelphia has gone on to be an important piece of every July Fourth celebration from that moment on, including every milestone anniversary:
- The world converged on Philadelphia in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition, the first World's Fair held in the U.S. The Centennial brought almost 10 million visitors to the city over six months in Fairmount Park, during which the nation was introduced to the modern typewriter, Heinz Ketchup, the electric light and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.
- Fifty years later, the World's Fair returned at the Sesquicentennial Exposition in South Philly's FDR Park (created for the event and then known as League Island Park) where America celebrated 150 candles in 1926. Despite torrential rains, another 10 million people descended on the city for the festival that gave Philly much of the Ben Franklin Parkway, the Ben Franklin Bridge and the South Philadelphia Sports Complex with the opening of Municipal Stadium, later renamed JFK Stadium.
- And as many Americans still recall, the nation came together in the City of Brotherly Love again 50 years ago in 1976 for the modern Bicentennial. The citywide celebration kicked off with the move of the Liberty Bell from its original home in Independence Hall to the Liberty Bell Pavilion (later to the current Liberty Bell Center), and included the additions of many Philadelphia institutions. Among them: The African American Museum, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Independence Seaport Museum and the iconic LOVE statue in JFK Plaza (aka LOVE Park).
About the PHLCVB:
The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) creates positive economic impact across the Philadelphia region, driving job growth and promoting the health and vibrancy of our hospitality industry by marketing the destination, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and attracting overnight visitors. The PHLCVB's work engages our partners, the local Philadelphia community as well as culturally and ethnically diverse regional, national, and international convention, sporting event and tourism customers. The PHLCVB is also the official tourism promotion agency for the city of Philadelphia globally and is responsible for growing the number of overseas leisure visitors who come to the region each year. To learn more, visit www.discoverPHL.com.
For more information, contact:
Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau
