(PHILADELPHIA, PA) -- Love From Philly will officially kick off Philly’s newest outdoor venue – The Oval On the Parkway with a free all Philadelphia culture celebration featuring performances from local artists who call the city home including Rich Medina, Cosmo Baker, Lauren Hart, the West Philly Orchestra, Schooly D, The Philly Gospel Preservation Alliance, The Ultimates, Ursula Rucker, The Tisburys, WALLIS and more. The event takes place on Saturday, June 11th starting at 11:00am.
Created to be “not just another music festival,” Love From Philly will be fully immersive with a deep well of farm-to-table arts and crafts, a pop-up animation fest from the Philly Indie Film fest, live art installations, family dance parties, tons of food trucks and a beer garden. The amazing new venue also provides a Ferris Wheel, Merry-go-Round, and a second stage for acoustic performances that will be provided by the Philadelphia School Districts Jazz and Classical all-stars.
While the event will physically take place at the Oval, it will also be streaming live for Xfinity subscribers, via Nugs.net and be the closing part in the Metaverse as Love From Philly’s partner Philly Tech Week. Love From Philly is also proud to partner with the Philly Indie Film fest to produce dozens of shows all week including an animation fest on Saturday.
“Why doesn’t Philly have an annual cultural gathering like New Orleans, Chicago, New York and LA?” Says Thirty Amp Circuit, Ropeadope Records and Love From Philly founder, Andy Blackman Hurwitz who birthed the original virtual festival two years ago. “We want Love From Philly to be the official start to the summer in an evergreen event that celebrates the rich culture of our hometown.”
Love From Philly comes roaring into the real world after debuting in cyber-space during the height of the pandemic with a virtual festival that featured performances from War on Drugs, Kurt Vile and John Oats amongst others that raised money for Thirty Amp Circuit May, Love From Philly will host a week long showcase highlighting our vibrant homegrown music, art and culture scenes. But don’t mistake local for meaning small — Philadelphia has grown into an international mecca of culture and this week-long event paints quite a compelling picture that it should be considered amongst the best.
This year’s Love From Philly festival rings in the 15th annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival throughout the city during the week of June 6-11. Over 12 months, PIFF curates six days of local and international filmmaking and discussions in unique and interesting settings. Annually, PIFF brings Filmmakers, Musicians, Technologists, Political Scientists, and patrons of the arts into a discussion about modern storytelling, media and technology, and how filmmaking can enable critical cultural narratives. This year’s highlights from local filmmakers include Twenty Minute Exotic Getaway (Sci Fi, director: Hollis Sherman-Pepe), Turbo Cola (Drama, director: Luke Covert), Against All Odds - Surviving the Holocaust. (Documentary, director: Paul Bachow), and Blind Eye Artist (Documentary, director: Ashwin Chaudhary).
“We are feeling a whole new sense of community within the Philadelphia Arts Community as the City starts opening up from a long darkness where we were literally without culture, this is all great timing for connections,” enthuses Hurwitz. “It’s like the Medici affect,” he continues citing the breakthrough book that predicted all great cities would go back to inter-disciplinary localized artistic collaborations by blending concepts and cultures. “The goal was to create a platform for the cities creators and then step to the side and shine a light on it,” he adds.
“The Love From Philly event we produced during the pandemic left us with a whole new sense of Philly pride – we had the whole scene top to bottom, young and old and it was inspiring to all of us, it changed a lot of things – for Thirty Amp it was the moment we decided to change our entire mission statement from national to local – we have an exciting ten year plan for the city and it kicks off this June,” Hurwitz enthused.
Proceeds from the event will benefit critical health and wellness services for Philly arts community centers and the Thirty Amp Circuit micro-grant program will be awarding immediate $333.00 cost of living grants to creative Philadelphians who keep the city, funky, fresh, vibrant and thriving.
Dozens of artists, vendors and creators who will make the day a truly integrated arts scene that will be replicated annually. As Made in America signals the end to summer, Love From Philly officially starts it all off with an ambitious undertaking that has galvanized the city's beleaguered Arts community.
