{"id":205541,"date":"2026-05-29T17:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/205541\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T17:15:16","slug":"pennsylvania-entertainer-drops-out-of-250th-us-birthday-bash-on-national-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/205541\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania entertainer drops out of 250th US birthday bash on National Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WHTM)\u2013 Pennsylvania native Bret Michaels took to social media early on Friday to announce he is dropping out of the\u00a0Great American State Fair, which is part of this year\u2019s\u00a0America 250 celebrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Michaels, who graduated from Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School, wrote a lengthy Facebook post early Friday morning to \u201ctalk about the upcoming Freedom 250 event in Washington, D.C.,\u201d and announce he is stepping away from the performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of. Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable,\u201d Michaels said in the post.<\/p>\n

The singer noted that his decision is not about politics, but rather staying true to what he believes in and taking threats and safety concerns seriously.<\/p>\n

Michaels has performed at an Independence Day celebration at the St. Louis Arch in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will continue to proudly support our veterans, active military members, teachers, first responders and the organizations that serve them, just as I always have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The full post can be read on his Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Michaels is the latest performer to drop out of the event this week. According to Deadline<\/a>, others include Martina McBride, The Commodores, Morris Day, and Young MC.<\/p>\n

The 16-day, World Fair-esque event, part of this year\u2019s\u00a0America 250 celebrations<\/a>, will kick off June 25 in Washington, according to the Hill.<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WHTM)\u2013 Pennsylvania native Bret Michaels took to social media early on Friday to announce he is dropping out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[70408,16172,1591,90468,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-205541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bret-michaels","tag-celebrations","tag-facebook","tag-mechanicsburg-area-senior-high-school","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}