Following the disastrous meltdown of Donald Trump’s planned Great American State Fair concert series, the bipartisan group America250 has announced its lineup for a July 4th concert featuring co-headliners the Smashing Pumpkins and Chris Stapleton.
The “America’s Block Party” show slated to take place at Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum will be hosted by Queen Latifah, with more acts to be announced at a later date. “On July 4, 2026, America250 will bring Americans together for a once-in-a-generation celebration — and a nationwide call to give back. The Los Angeles event will anchor America’s Block Party, a sea-to-shining-sea celebration connecting major cities, local communities, and viewers across the country,” reads an announcement.
The daylong event is slated to kick-off at 3 p.m. in Block Party Village with free food, drinks, face painting, games and giveaways before the music starts, ending with a drone and fireworks spectacular. Tickets are priced at a patriotic $17.76, with 5,000 complimentary tickets to be donated to veterans and active-duty service members in honor of their service; active-duty military, veterans and first responders can claim tickets through VetTix.
All proceeds after fees of every ticket sold will be donated to the country’s largest hunger-relief organization, Feeding America. “As we celebrate our 250th anniversary, we have an opportunity to bring Americans together around the values that continue to unite us,” said America250 chair Rosie Rios in a statement. America250 was established by Congress in 2016 by the nonpartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to plan the 250th anniversary celebrations. The second Trump administration launched a competing effort, dubbed Freedom250, in January of 2025.
To date, the latter — which has no affiliation with the original bipartisan, congressionally launched initiative — has hosted the for-profit, bloody UFC cage match that took place on the White House lawn on Trump’s 80th birthday on Sunday (June 14), and planned a DC 250 Grand Prix race on the streets of the nation’s capital on Aug. 22-23.
Another planned Freedom250 celebration, the ill-fated Great American State Fair, initially announced a lineup of 1970s, ’80s and ’90s pop, rock, country and hip-hop/R&B acts including Milli Vanilli, Vanilla Ice, Poison’s Bret Michaels, Flo Rida, Morris Day & the Time, C + C Music Factory, Martina McBride and the Commodores. Just days after it was rolled out, though, all but “Ice Ice Baby” rapper Vanilla Ice and C + C rapper Freedom Williams had dropped out, decrying the partisan nature of Freedom250. Trump subsequently canceled the entire run of shows, denigrating the “no talent” lineup booked by his own team and saying he’d scrapped the entire thing and will headline his own “rally to end all rallies” on June 24.
Check out the announcement below.
