Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic lands in Philadelphia area for the first time

Willie Nelson‘s Fourth of July Picnic is two-stepping out of Texas to the Philadelphia area.

The country luminary’s mostly annual mega-concert, hosted in his native Texas for most of its 50-year-history, will be held for the first time in the Northeast this July, with a bill that includes Bob Dylan and the duo of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey.

The lineup also includes Mavis Staples, Maren Morris and Celisse. Tickets go on sale Friday.

The giant patriotic party that Nelson first threw in 1973 has made occasional forays outside the Lone Star State, to Tulsa, Oklahoma; Kansas City; Atlanta and, most recently, to South Bend, Indiana in 2009. With the exception of virtual concerts in 2020 and 2021, it’s been held in Austin for the past decade.

At 90, Nelson has not slowed the constant touring, recording and performing he’s kept up for more than six decades. Last April he was feted for his birthday with two nights of tribute concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and in November he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.