Philly celebrates July 4th on the Parkway with Kesha and Ne-Yo performances and fireworks

Thousands of patriotic holiday revelers celebrated America’s birthday on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Thursday, marking the night with merriment, music, and fireworks.

Despite the evening heat, concertgoers clad in red, white, and blue pressed close to the stage for the Wawa Welcome America festival, eager to hear headliners Ne-Yo and Kesha. Crowds of people in Wawa-branded hats stretched down the Parkway.

Songwriter and producer Adam Blackstone, who’s from Willingboro, opened the concert, supported by West Philly rapper Chill Moody, American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, and a backing band dressed in Phillies gear.

Blackstone said the R&B “Philly sound” has inspired him since he was young, especially singers such as Teddy Pendergrass, who he compared to Studdard.

Kesha took the stage just before 8 p.m. to raucous cheers and launched into “Freedom,” a new song debuted at last month’s Los Angeles Pride. But the biggest applause came for one of her most enduring hits, “Tik Tok,” with concertgoers on the Parkway dancing on top of folding chairs and capturing the moment with cell phone cameras.

During one hit song — “Take It Off” — she pulled out a custom Sixers jersey with Kesha written on the back.

In a red latex jumpsuit, occasionally augmented by props (during “Backstabber,” she wielded a large knife), Kesha moved through an energetic set of her mid-aughts hits and some newer material. The singer recently left her label and this week released her first independently produced single, “Joyride” — a song she said she couldn’t sing live because it has too many “bad words.” She joked during her set that she would keep her cursing to a minimum but also warned organizers: “You know who you hired.”

“The tea is that today is not only the Fourth of July, but is my personal Independence Day. This is the first time in nearly 20 years that I am putting out my song as an independent free woman on my own record label,” she said. “This has been a really, really special night. It’s been a really intense journey. I’m so lucky to have all of you here standing in this heat right now.”

Kesha closed out her encore with “We Are Who We Are” as dancers waved Pride flags onstage. ”We’re celebrating freedom,” she said, “and every month is Pride Month.”

Dozens of Wawa staffers clustered in a special section near the stage the company had set aside for its employees and their families. They included Elaine Quinn of Wissinoming, who worked at Wawa for a decade, and her boyfriend, who still works there. Both have been coming to the Parkway to celebrate the Fourth for years.

Quinn had been particularly excited to see Kesha, especially for free: “No one can afford Kesha tickets in this economy.”

And she had been moved by the singer’s message onstage: “She was amazing — it was great to watch her celebrate her freedom in that way, today of all days,” Quinn said.

Nearby, Kenn Bosak of Kensington said he found Kesha’s set “awesome,” but confessed: “I was more excited to see Ruben Studdard. What a great surprise.”

And by the front of the stage, Brendon Bashlane and Mike Delporte of Fishtown were congratulating themselves on their good luck: They had managed to snag tickets for a spot at the very front of the stage. “God smiled on us,” Delporte said, laughing. They cut out after Kesha’s set — Bashlane’s second time seeing the singer — to partake in another Fourth of July tradition: a friend’s barbecue.

Philly pride was on full display Thursday night. While eager concertgoers waited for Ne-Yo to take the stage, many joined together for an Eagles chant.

Ne-Yo, in a bright red suit and matching fedora, twirling a microphone in his hand, took the stage to cheers around 9 pm. He played a mix of old songs and new music, delineating between his “classic classics” and his “future classics.”

”Happy Fourth of July, everybody!” he said. “We’re going to run the whole gamut of emotions tonight,” he said before breaking into the 2010 track “Champagne Life.”

The set shifted between the Las Vegas-raised singer’s R&B repertoire and the club hits from the mid-2000s that saw him collaborate with other artists like Calvin Harris and Pitbull (coincidentally, Kesha also performed her own Pitbull collab, “Timber”).

Ne-Yo also shared the stage with Peedi Crakk and Freeway during his set, calling the fellow artists “Philly legends.”

Elated concertgoers jumped on to their chairs and sang along. Ne-Yo left the stage to cheers, under a cloud of red, white, and blue confetti.

London Lopez, 15, Li-Lon Dawson, 13, and Jaylah Johnson, 13, traveled from Allentown for their first Fourth of July in Philly. They were particularly excited to see Ne-Yo — and hoping to hear his 2008 hit “Miss Independent.”

”He’s a really good singer,” Johnson said.

Similarly, Octavia Baker, 21, and Kennardi Kamalsah, 27, were on the Parkway mostly to see the R&B singer, who had a string of chart-toppers in the mid-2000s.

”He was all my mom listened to when I was growing up,” Baker said.

Shortly after the concert, as concertgoers walked home down the Parkway, fireworks burst in the air over the stage.