Chris Stapleton, Smashing Pumpkins to headline America250 July 4 concert

America250 is betting that Chris Stapleton, The Smashing Pumpkins and Queen Latifah can turn the nation’s 250th birthday into a civic spectacle that feels as much like a brand launch as a concert. The July 4, 2026, event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is being positioned as the anchor of a broader nationwide push to define patriotism through pop culture, philanthropy and mass participation.

Tickets will cost $17.76, a symbolic nod to the founding year, with sales opening June 16 at 10 a.m. PDT at America250.org/LA. America250 said 5,000 free tickets will be donated to first responders, veterans and service members, while proceeds after fees from the concert will benefit Feeding America. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Los Angeles show is the centerpiece of America250’s new “Giving 4th” initiative, which asks Americans to pledge charitable donations as part of their Independence Day plans. The organization says the Coliseum concert will anchor “America’s Block Party,” a sea-to-shining-sea celebration that includes local block parties and other events nationwide, with the day beginning at 3 p.m. at a Block Party Village featuring free food, drinks, face painting, games and giveaways before the headline concert, fireworks and a drone spectacular.

The curation is deliberate. Country, alternative rock and Queen Latifah do more than fill a lineup, they signal an effort to stitch together multiple strands of American identity under one civic banner ahead of the semiquincentennial. America250 describes itself as the only national, nonpartisan organization charged by Congress with leading the commemoration of the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary, and says its mission is to engage all 350 million Americans through national programming, major events, partnerships and public participation opportunities.

Rosie Rios, America250’s chair and a former U.S. treasurer, has said she wants the 250th anniversary to feel national, local and personal. She called the broader effort “the largest synchronized Fourth of July celebration in U.S. history.” Queen Latifah said Los Angeles hosting the event at the Coliseum will be “something special.” With the country’s most recognizable patriotic holiday now tied to a concert, a donation drive and a national rollout of local block parties, America250 is making its first big argument about what the next chapter of American civic culture should look like.