I thought we could use a thread for this semiquincentennial event that should have been an exciting celebration. Given its inauspicious start with most of the musical talent withdrawing from the proceedings, I expect it will be a shitshow of massive proportions. Hence, putting the thread in the Pit. As far as I’ve seen, it’s not been widely advertised. If the debacle with the musicians is any indication, they don’t have the top people working on it. I’m really wondering if it is going to come off like the Willy Wonka Chocolate Experience a few years ago in Scotland. If any Dopers in the area get to experience any of it, please let us know your thoughts.
Here’s the website. The list of musical acts hasn’t been updated, of course.
For reference, there is a Cafe Society thread on the musical acts which had committed to it, many of which backed out in the last day or so:
And, at this rate, this certainly appears that it will be a bad, MAGA-heavy Trump lovefest, which will be poorly attended…that is, if it isn’t suddenly called off entirely, with America-hating liberals being blamed.
I read the schedule of events, and almost every one set off my Christofascometer. If anyone else looks at it, please share your thoughts. I can admit I approached it with very biased eyes and may be reading into things that aren’t there.
Depressing is what it is.
I don’t think they did. Many were surprised to hear they were announced as performers because nobody asked them, others had been lied to about what the event was in the first place.
Seriously skeevy. Detailed Wiki article on how Trump’s “Freedom 250” self-promotion machine has shouldered aside the original nonpartisan Congressional “America 250” foundation, and the resulting Trumpian circus.
People here are complaining about the 250th celebration by comparing it to the bicentennlal, but they don’t appear to realize what a debcle the bicentennial was.
The bicentennial committee spent a lot of time arguing about ,and designing the logo, and detailing exactly what it was to be. They never got around o putting together a Bicentennial Fair, like the CEntennial Fair in 1876 that celebrated our first 100 years. And a lot of people clearly wanted to
There were recreations of events, but there were two different groups doing this – the merican REvolution Bicentennial Committee (ARBC) and the People’s Bicentennial Committee (PBC). The ARBC was more official, and its members were mainly Old White Guys. The PBC were radical upstarts who looked the part (they were younger and angrier). The ARBC celebrated the Boston Tea Party by tossing wooden boxes into Boston Harbor. The PBC celebrated it by tossing oil drums into the harbor. It was that kind of thing.
There were a lot of arguably ood things that cam out of it. The “Bicentennial Minutes” on TV were cool. These were little one minute “commercials” that pointed out some historical detail that happened on that date 200 years previously, and gave you not only a mini-history lesson but also gave you a sense of how long it took for things to happen. The Tall Ships going to various harbors was a nice spectacle. There were various expositions in big cities. But there wasn’t any big single celebration like the CEntennial Fair to crystallize it. There were various parades and TV specials and special bicentennial quarters, but I felt we were left hanging, without a bi event
Actually, my favorite artifacts from the bicentennial were the special “July 4 1776” mockup issue of Time Magazine with a red-haired Thomas Jefferson on the cover and the special bicentennial issue of Madde magazine, with a revolutionary Alfred E. Newman
That’s the one thing I remember (I was six - saw them pass under the George Washington Bridge, from near the Little Red Schoolhouse).
It was cool in part because it was unique. Who needs another fair, or Ferris Wheel, or parade? This was a weird event (not an obvious choice, yet it expressed a sense of history, and logistically could be enjoyed by many without huge cost), that will always be associated with the Bicentennial.
I was two months old for the bicentennial and expect to be dead for the tricentennial. I hate, hate that the one time I get to experience a big national anniversary, it has Trump’s fingerprints all over it. (I was thinking I might go to the Great American State Fair anyway, but leaning toward “not” if it’s going to be a Trump-fest.)
I fear that if liberals put together an “alternative” lineup just to rub it in MAGA’s face over the State Fair musical lineup debacle, it, too, will be poorly attended. From where I sit, the entire 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is a giant, nationwide nothingburger. No one seems to care at all. Also, we’re all adults here; let’s not try to show each other up just because we can.
I’m also quite a bit salty about whatever attempts are being made to tie the 2026 FIFA World Cup to the 250th anniversary. For one thing, Canada and Mexico are involved, too – did we forget that? And secondly, I doubt the decision to award it to North America had anything to do with the semiq… the senquinc… the 250th thing. The World Cup is every four years; it just so happens that 2026 is a World Cup year.
The US did not celebrate its 50th birthday. And while there was an attempt to celebrate the 150th, it was a massive flop much like this one is looking to be.
The fair drew a much smaller crowd than anticipated (about 10 million people). Variety dubbed it “America’s Greatest Flop” with a loss of $20 million by August 1926. The exposition ended up unable to cover its debts and was placed into receivership in 1927, at which point its assets were sold at auction.
I’ll also point out that the 150th birthday celebration was a local Philadelphia thing, and wasn’t a national effort sponsored by the federal government.
This is 100% a Trump thing, not some organic and normal celebration that the nation would be expected to have or that anyone gives a shit about. If the country lasts long enough for a 300th birthday, there might be an expectation to celebrate that, but 250 years is not any kind of widely-recognized landmark.
And don’t forget the Bicentennial Freedom Train, which was a traveling museum of sorts. I remember the family going to this on the stop at the St Louis riverfront when I was a teen.