Budweiser no Longer Sponsoring the Made in America Festival Over Labor Day Weekend

Last week on AdAge.com we read a June 6th article detailing why Budweiser had dropped from being the major sponsor of the Made in America music festival held annually in Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend.

We went looking for local coverage of how it would impact the festival, if there was a new sponsor, etc., and found that no one was covering the story.

Dan DeLuca from Philly.com had written a June 4th article that announced the line-up of performers and noted that this year’s festival lacked really big names. From Philly.com:

This year’s festival is a little short on the mega-wattage star power at the top of the bill. Last year, the closing-night headliner was festival kingpin Jay-Z himself. The previous two years, the Saturday night slot was filled by Beyoncè and Rihanna, respectively.

So did the lack of Budweiser’s sponsorship impact the ability to book big acts? That was the kind of article we were looking for from the local media.

From the article on  AdAge.com:

When Philadelphia hosts the annual Made In America music festival Labor Day weekend curated by Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj will be on hand. And so will Post Malone, Meek Mill, Diplo, Zedd and roughly five dozen other acts. But the beer brand that helped get the 7-year old annual event off the ground won’t be there.

Budweiser—which used to spend millions of dollars staging and promoting the fest—opted not come back this year as it sets its sights on other music priorities, like country music-themed events held at its own breweries, and music partnerships with the NBA.

The article in AdAge.com goes into why Budweiser decided to not continue the sponsorship and what it indicates within the world of sponsorship marketing, especially involving music. It also points out that local media has very recently still been referring to Budweiser in connection to the festival’s name.