Who loses money when Made in America cancels?

Labor Day weekend just got a lot less busy in Philadelphia with the unexpected cancellation of Jay-Z’s Made In America festival.

The event could draw up to 50,000 ticket holders for each of its two days with some of the biggest names in music on a weekend that residents typically flock to the Shore. By Jay-Z’s estimates, the festival exceeded $100 million in positive economic impact for the city in its first six years while employing 1,000 residents a day.

While headliners SZA and Lizzo will likely be fine financially, many workers in Philadelphia are seeing the cancellation as a major economic blow.

As news of the festival’s cancellation spreads, the list of industries expected to lose out on money grows. Here’s what we know of the fallout so far.

Raising festival grounds complete with rides and multiple stages on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway requires a slew of workers, from stagehands to electricians.

For some, the festival accounts for a significant chunk of annual business.

Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 8 get about $1 million a year from the festival, making it the union’s largest live event, according to president Michael Barnes.

“People count on that,” he said. “For that to cancel within weeks of the concert is overly impactful to the live event and entertainment workers.”

Mark Lynch Jr., business manager of IBEW Local 98, similarly lamented the hours of work his members would miss out on, but hopes they can participate in future MIA festivals.

Philadelphia food vendors shook up the typical festival fare with an array of dumplings, Popsicles, and tacos.

Charisse McGill, owner of Lokal Artisan Foods, said the marketing alone was worth getting on the waitlist — though she bypassed that list by writing Roc Nation directly in 2019, becoming a staple at the festival ever since.

“If the ‘severe circumstances’ are low ticket sales,” said McGill, quoting the festival’s cancellation announcement, “I’d rather they cancel than force an event because as a small-business owner, we would lose money.”

Though vendors work within a revenue-share system and don’t have to pay a fee to set up in the festival, McGill said she’s typically adding staff and ingredients to feed thousands. With her specialty being French toast bites, that means buying a surplus of dairy, eggs, and bread — items that wouldn’t keep if not sold immediately.

In that sense, she’s glad organizers didn’t “force it” and looks forward to next year.

» READ MORE: Made in America cancellation: What we know and what we don’t

People had to get to the festival somehow and public transit was just one way of doing so. Andrew Busch, spokesperson for SEPTA, said the transit agency added service on the Broad Street Line and trolleys in past years, similar to what they do during some sporting events in South Philly.

Adjusting to travel trends, there were plans to add late-night service this year to some Regional Rail lines.

Additional service will likely be canceled now that MIA is no more.

Busch said the impact on operations and overtime will be marginal — SEPTA planned only one additional trip for each affected line. Buses that would have had to detour around the festival will operate as usual.

For drivers, the loss of the festival might cut a little deeper. Uber and Lyft did not respond to requests for comment, but Charles Polk, owner of Philadelphia Transportation Services LLC, described the cancellation as a major blow.

Polk said a lot of tourists take cabs or hire private drivers to avoid long rideshare waits and price surges during these big events.

Fans of Auguste Rodin looking to take in his sculptures on Labor Day Weekend would typically be out of luck. The Rodin Museum’s proximity to Made in America prompted it to close. That would have been the case again this year before the festival’s cancellation.

Maggie Fairs, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said the Rodin will now remain open along with the Art Museum, which has historically kept its regular operations during MIA.

On Sunday of the holiday weekend, both museums will offer “pay as you wish” admission.

The Franklin Institute has similarly worked around the festival. The science center’s president and CEO, Larry Dubinski, said even with the cancellation, the institute’s “Disney100: The Exhibition” will close on Aug. 27, weeks earlier than usual for their special exhibitions.

It will be “just another weekend, I guess,” said Jonathan Fink, 40, a server at Kite & Key, a restaurant and bar on Callowhill Street near where the festival takes place.

Over the years, he’s seen smaller and younger crowds trickle over from the event, he said

. Last year, he had to put a sign up that noted no one under age 21 would be admitted inside.

Some people might come into the restaurant before they head to the festival, but once they’re inside MIA’s perimeter, they don’t leave, he said.

And when the festival ends, “they’re exhausted, thirsty, dehydrated,” he said. Festival goers aren’t necessarily looking to continue drinking at the bar.

With the festival canceled, that might mean more business at Kite & Key, he said. Locals who typically leave the area to avoid the crowds might choose to stick around.

“I was kind of thrilled to see it was canceled, to be honest,” he said.

Across the street at DGX, a chain convenience store, the outlook was less positive.

It would have been the second festival for the store, which opened in December 2021. Last year, attendees stopped in throughout the day for snacks, said store manager Rochelle Thompson.

This year was expected to draw an even larger crowd because of the store’s new alcohol section. There was a great turnout over the Fourth of July because of it, and Thompson expected that Made in America would also be a good business day.

When she found out about the cancellation, she said, “I was disappointed because I wanted to see how this was gonna sell.”

Mick Houston, 54, owner of Jack’s Firehouse on Fairmount Avenue, was also disappointed.

The cancellation doesn’t affect the business so much because of the festival’s self-contained nature —people eat and drink inside its perimeter. Nonetheless, 40 to 50 people might trickle into the restaurant for a late-night drink after the festival ends, he said.

“We’ll always be playing the music of whoever just got off the stage and capture the attention of the people that are walking by,” he said.

Confi Rios, 62, a cook at the Parkway Corner Deli on Spring Garden Street, will miss the crowds.

“It brings a lot of fun,” he said.

Made in America was a nice way to mark the end of summer, he said. Not so this year.

When the festival sets up in Philadelphia, it has to pay for everything from the police officers who ensure the space is safe, to sanitation workers who clean up the area.

In 2012, the festival’s contract with the city outlined that it would pay $220,000 for police, $90,000 for emergency services, and $60,000 for sanitation to the City of Philadelphia. In total, city services and expenses added up to $500,000 that year, according to the contract.

Last year’s festival cost the city government $1.54 million in services, and MIA reimbursed the city $627,000, according to a city spokesperson.

A contract between the city and Made in America for this year’s festival wasn’t finalized, according to city spokesperson Joy Huertas.

The city’s police force is currently at “critical staffing levels,” and it would have been an issue to staff the festival, said John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5. There’s a shortage of about 1,200 to 1,500 officers, which can be both a safety issue for officers who need backup and citizens calling 911, he said. “We’re stretched thin.”

The benefit of the festival cancellation? Some officers can have the day off to spend with their families. “Our guys are happy,” he said.

» READ MORE: Made in America cancellation wasn’t due to a conflict with city officials

Labor Day weekend was a slow one for Philly’s hotel industry before MIA, said Ed Grose, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association. The group represents virtually all Center City hotels as well as some in the suburbs.

Many hotels have flexible cancellation policies for individual reservations — group reservations would likely incur some fees — so Grose said they’re expecting to see major losses.

“The people who are most impacted by this are our frontline employees,” he said of workers who have come to rely on the weekend as a moneymaker. “The bellmen, the housekeepers, the restaurant employees, the bartenders.”

The cancellation could also potentially impact the industry’s pandemic recovery. The occupancy rate was in the 90th percentile pre-pandemic and Grose said hotels were expected to finish the year at 61% occupancy, but that was taking Made in America into account.

It’s unclear how lodging alternatives will fare. In 2021 Airbnb said Philadelphia was its third-most popular-city on Labor Day Weekend and Made in America played a big part with searches for Philly surging after the festival announced its return. Organizers skipped 2020 because of the pandemic.

Airbnb did not respond to a request for comment.