{"id":235199,"date":"2026-07-04T04:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235199\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T04:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T04:00:07","slug":"hundreds-pack-independence-mall-for-philly-pops-idina-menzel-concert-i-love-her-with-a-big-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235199\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds pack Independence Mall for Philly Pops, Idina Menzel concert: “I love her with a big orchestra”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite extreme heat that delayed the start of the show by an hour,<\/a> hundreds of people packed Independence Mall on Friday night for the annual free “Pops on Independence” concert, kicking off the Fourth of July weekend in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The Philly Pops opened the performance with the national anthem before playing several hometown favorites from the “Rocky” soundtrack, drawing cheers from the crowd.<\/p>\n

A little before 9p.m., the orchestra welcomed Broadway star and Tony Award-winning singer Idina Menzel to the stage. Her appearance drew huge cheers from her fans in the crowd, many of whom said hearing her perform with a full orchestra made the evening memorable.<\/p>\n

“It’s the combination,” said Colleen Uribe, who traveled from Kansas City for the concert. “I love her with a big orchestra, just her voice, and then the orchestra, it just gives you chills.”<\/p>\n

Among those in attendance was Josie, a violist from Brooklyn, New York, who said watching another orchestra perform alongside one of her favorite singers was especially meaningful.<\/p>\n

“I’m part of an orchestra myself. I play the viola,” she said. “And it’s exciting to see another orchestra play in front of one of my favorite singers, or behind one of my favorite singers.”<\/p>\n

The music was a welcome distraction from brutally hot temperatures that remained high throughout the evening. Audience members and performers alike endured the heat as they celebrated the start of the holiday weekend.<\/p>\n

“All the heat is just on me right now. My shirt’s sticking to me, I’m getting all hot,” said Dillen of Wallingford, Pennsylvania. “But I think it will be worth it in the end because I get to enjoy being here and celebrating July 4th.”<\/p>\n

Patriotism was on full display across Independence Mall, where many attendees said there was no better place to celebrate Independence Day weekend than the birthplace of the United States.<\/a><\/p>\n

“The Liberty Bell is right there,” said Jedah, who traveled from Brooklyn. “Philadelphia is so important to our country’s history, so I just felt like if you’re going to be anywhere in the country, you might as well be here.”<\/p>\n

The annual concert marked the beginning of Philadelphia’s Independence Day weekend festivities and helped set the stage for events leading up to the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration next year.<\/p>\n

Menzel is also set to sing the America’s national anthem before Saturday’s World Cup Round-of-16 match in South Philly.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite extreme heat that delayed the start of the show by an hour, hundreds of people packed Independence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[100729,92364,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-235199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-idina-menzel","tag-july-4th","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235199","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=235199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}