{"id":780213,"date":"2026-07-04T17:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780213\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T17:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:44:09","slug":"us-marks-250th-independence-anniversary-as-heatwave-disrupts-celebrations-follow-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780213\/","title":{"rendered":"US marks 250th independence anniversary as heatwave disrupts celebrations – follow live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pop stars to perform across US to celebrate 250 years of independencepublished at 16:13 BST<\/p>\n

16:13 BST<\/p>\n

\"ChristinaImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n

Christina Aguilera will perform at Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway alongside Will Smith<\/p>\n

From Christina Aguilera to Will Smith and Chaka Khan, artists across the US are performing in celebration of the country’s 250 years of independence.<\/p>\n

Those run by Congress’ America 250 body include Mary J Blige, Brad Paisley, and Ne-Yo who will perform at New York City’s Times Square, from 21:00 local time (Sunday 02:00 BST).<\/p>\n

In Los Angeles, Chaka Khan joins Chris Stapleton and the Smashing Pumpkins at the LA Memorial Coliseum, with the show kicking off at 18:30 local time (Sunday 02:30 BST).<\/p>\n

If you feel like seeing Christina Aguilera, Will Smith, Seal and Meek Mill this evening, Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway is where you’ll need to be at 17:00 (22:00 BST).<\/p>\n

US President Trump has also attempted to organise his own “Freedom 250” concert series in DC, announcing shows from Martina McBride, The Commodores and Bret Michaels – before several acts pulled out following political backlash. <\/p>\n

Performing today ahead of his speech in Washington DC will be, among others, singer and rapper CeeLo Green and rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 19:00 local time (00:00 BST).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pop stars to perform across US to celebrate 250 years of independencepublished at 16:13 BST 16:13 BST Image…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-780213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}