This Fourth of July, patriotism for many Americans feels a bit slippery.
As citizens of our near 250-year-old republic reminisce about the Independence Days of their childhoods — adorned with American flag motifs and smelling of charred hot dogs — some, particularly in 2025, are wrestling with thoughts about what it means to love one’s country.
Such dialogue has exploded as protesters over the last month have publicly condemned ongoing immigration enforcement raids. In L.A., several communities fearing the consequences of those raids are canceling their Independence Day events in an effort to protect vulnerable residents.
Organizers of the Gloria Molina Grand Park Summer Block Party in downtown L.A. posted on Instagram that they postponed the annual event “out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing events across L.A. county.”
Although celebrating American independence may look different this year, L.A. still has a spirited slate of parades, concerts, boat rides and firework shows where you can show your patriotism — whatever that means to you.
Here is a list of 52 places and events in L.A. County to ring in the holiday. (Events start Wednesday and continue through Sunday, but be sure to watch for any new cancellations.)
No pop artist today has a more tangled relationship to a venue than the Weeknd has with SoFi Stadium.
First, he chose SoCal’s flagship stadium as the site to film the denouement of his cult-campy HBO series “The Idol” during one of his concerts. Unfortunately, during the set, he lost his voice four songs in and had to send fans home for the night so he could recover and make up the date. For such a perfectionist, that must have been a body blow.
He rebounded a few months later with a triumphal return and the concert doc “The Weeknd: Live at SoFi Stadium.” But that nerve-racking experience stuck with him. He revisited it in his recent feature film (and album) “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” where a fictional version of the Weeknd loses his voice onstage, kicking off a surrealist, violent night with Jenna Ortega. A brief interlude from that LP is titled “I Can’t F— Sing.”
So Abel Tesfaye must have had a range of mixed feelings when he walked out at SoFi on Wednesday night, the first of four nights at the site of some of his greatest triumphs and most bitter disappointments as a live performer. “This is bigger than me — it’s a reflection of the power of music and its impact on people,” Tesfaye told The Times in a brief email just before the show.
The Weeknd performs during his After Hours til Dawn Stadium Tour at SoFi Stadium.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
This slickly cryptic, immaculately performed 2½-hour set covered the whole of his era-defining catalog. But is this run of SoFi dates a swan song to one of the most successful recording projects of our time?
Since first emerging as an anonymous voice atop gothic, coked-up R&B productions on a trilogy of 2011 mixtapes, Tesfaye’s tastes and his unlikely commercial success grew together.
An underground fan base turned up for the nihilism of “Wicked Games” (“Bring the drugs, baby, I could bring my pain”). But with assists from Max Martin and Daft Punk, he became a bona fide pop star. His mournful Ethiopian melodic lilt stood out like nothing else in Top 40, and he hung onto enough art-freak sensibility that he could headline the Super Bowl halftime show with dancers in full-face plastic-surgery bandages. His ’80s-noir, 2019 single “Blinding Lights” remains the most-streamed song on Spotify, ever.
Darryl Eaton, his agent at CAA, told The Times that the 200,000 tickets sold for this SoFi run alone is “like selling out an entire American city.”
Yet Tesfaye has recently hinted at retiring the Weeknd as a premise. “It’s a headspace I’ve gotta get into that I just don’t have any more desire for,” he told Variety recently. “It never ends until you end it.”
Whether he wants to release less conceptual, more personal music, or if he’s simply run out of gas with this all-consuming pop entity he’s created, this SoFi run is likely one of the last chances L.A. fans will get to see the Weeknd. Tesfaye will surely keep making music and films, but it makes cinematic sense that he’d come back to the scene of his most painful night onstage to put this all to bed.
After a brief and typically roiling set from Tesfaye’s recent collaborator Playboi Carti, Tesfaye emerged in black and gold, eyes lit with LED pinpicks, over a ruined cityscape. Opening with the “BoJack Horseman”-riffing “The Abyss,” he grimly promised, “I tried my best to not let you go / I don’t like the view from halfway down … I tried to be something that I’ll never be.” It sure felt like he was saying goodbye to this way of being an artist.
The show kicked into gear with Tesfaye surrounded by a trim live band and minimalist, moving-sculpture dancers in rose-colored robes. He didn’t need much more to let that once-in-a-generation voice carry everything. Tesfaye’s a uniquely dedicated live vocalist on the stadium circuit (it’s kind of honorable that any serious vocal troubles might mean the show’s over). For all his high-concept misdirections in videos and films, you could feel the troubled intimacy that’s kept fans invested in this music over so many aesthetics.
For all his close reads of Michael Jackson’s records on singles like “Can’t Feel My Face,” Tesfaye’s not an especially physical dancer onstage. But he knows exactly how to inhabit and set-dress this music to make it eerie and monolithic, even at its poppiest.
The Weeknd.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
“After Hours” made a seductive case for letting an obviously toxic man back into your life (“Different girls on the floor, distracting my thoughts of you”). After finally taking off his face mask, he played “Take My Breath” like a revving, neo-disco floor-filler that still winked at the darker choke-kinks of his old music.
When he cranked up the pyro on the midcareer lurker ballad “The Hills,” the front rows of SoFi got a bracing reminder of how volatile this music is even when it sits atop streaming charts. Alongside Carti on their collaborations “Timeless” and “Rather Lie,” Tesfaye grounded his pal’s smeary Atlanta noise with evilly pretty melody. This is a voice you just can’t help but believe, even when it’s calling you to self-destruction.
The Weeknd performs at SoFi Stadium.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
If this tour is indeed at the end of his tenure as the Weeknd, at more than three dozen songs, Wednesday’s set delivered every possible angle of valediction — the thrumming decadence of “Often,” the desperate sincerity of “Die for You” and “Is There Someone Else?” Newer material like “Cry for Me” and “São Paolo” showed that, whatever his exhaustion with this aegis, he’s got tons of startling ideas still brimming.
When Tesfaye buried the hatchet with the Grammys back in February, it was a generous gesture to an organization that inexplicably locked him out of honors for “Blinding Lights,” which he should, obviously, have contended for. When he played that double-time, neo-New Wave single toward the end of his Wednesday set, it felt like a strange pearl that he’d discovered — one of the biggest pop songs of all time, played by a guy whose music emerged from a murk of MDMA licks and mournful threesomes.
With perhaps the exception of his (exceedingly stylish if critically skeptical) film career, he’s always found his voice, over and over again. SoFi Stadium has dealt the Weeknd his greatest defeat and some of his finest hours as a performer. Now it’s sending him off to Valhalla, wherever that takes Abel Tesfaye.
After running — or more like barely surviving — my first half-marathon about a decade ago in Las Vegas, I had no desire to participate in a long-distance run ever again.
That was until I learned that Nike was hosting the Nike After Dark tour, a women’s race series designed to celebrate women and encourage them to get into the sport. The L.A. half-marathon — the tour’s only stop in the U.S. — was slated to include a concert with Grammy-winning rapper Doechii at the end of the 13.1 mile race. Given that Nike has built a reputation for curating cool, culture-forward experiences, I figured this would be the perfect way for me to get out of my years-long retirement from running. Plus, several of my friends were participating so it was bound to be a good time.
After training for several weeks at parks and tracks around L.A., I hit the pavement alongside nearly 15,000 participants — 43% of whom were first-time half-marathoners — on Saturday evening at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. The event sparked a lot of online chatter — not all positive — with some runners calling the race disorganized and a marketing event catered to influencers. As for me, I experienced several highs during the energetic event, but also some moments of frustration and confusion. Here’s how the night went down, from the starting line (and the journey in getting there) to the high-octane concert finale.
Pre-race: Getting to the starting line was a marathon in itself
Knowing that thousands of people were expected to participate in the event, I opted to get to the SoFi Stadium about an hour and a half early to avoid traffic. In hindsight, I should’ve arrived even earlier. Several streets were blocked off due to the race, but once I found the parking lot, it was easy for me to find a spot — much easier than it was at the recent Kendrick Lamar and SZA concert a few weeks prior. (While registration for the race started at $150, parking was thankfully free for those who secured a spot ahead of time.)
After experiencing long lines and a delayed start time, runners gather in their assigned corrals to prepare for the 13.1-mile race.
I followed a herd of people toward the entrance where we went through a security checkpoint, then a bag check line, which took about 30 minutes to get through. Afterward, I rushed outside to find my friends and waited in yet another line — this time for the porta-potties — which took about 40 minutes.
The starting line, at last
By this time, there were only about 10 minutes until race time and I still needed to stretch, so my group ran over to the starting corrals. The race was initially scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., but an emcee announced that it was being pushed back to 6:45 p.m. This made me nervous because the concert was set for 9:30 p.m., so this meant that I’d have less than three hours to finish if I wanted to catch the show.
In the weeks leading up to the marathon, some participants took to social media to voice their concerns about Nike changing its course time from four hours — as it stated on the registration form — to three hours. In one Threads post, a runner said: “If the whole purpose of this event was to reclaim running by giving women a space to feel safe running at night, then why wouldn’t you be inclusive to runners of all paces?”
In response to the feedback, Nike ultimately set the course time to three hours and 17 minutes, allowing for an average mile of 15 minutes per mile, according to a Nike spokesperson. The brand added a shorter course option, which was nine miles, so participants could still cross the finish line, receive a medal (a silver necklace with a giant Nike swoosh) and enjoy the concert.
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Despite the confusion, people were amped. “I’m at this phase in my life where I really want to prove to myself that I can do hard things,” said Ayanna Fox, 29, of Chino Hills, on why she wanted to participate.
Misty Garcia, 17, a Venice High School student, said: “I felt like this race in particular was so interesting because it was going to be mostly women and it’s about women empowerment, so I love it.”
As Charli xcx’s “360” played over the speakers, Nike trainers along with Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles and Olympic hurdler Anna Cockrell, hyped up the crowd as each corral took off. This was the point when my nerves started to kick in because I was eager to get started. About 7:05 p.m., a burst of smoke popped. I was finally off and running.
Host Elisa Hernandez, from left, Diljeet Taylor, Anna Cockrell and Jordan Chiles at the Nike After Dark Tour in L.A.
Miles 1-7: The excitement of activations, DJs and cheering fans
The first seven miles were the most exhilarating for me. I felt strong and confident about my pace. And for my legs, this stretch was smooth sailing. Hundreds of people were cheering from the sidelines and holding up signs with statements like “You run better than our government,” “Hot girls run half marathons” and “Hurry up so we can drink.” Drivers along the freeway were honking for us. DJs played upbeat house and hip-hop music. USC’s band performed. Between the six- and seven-mile marker, we ran through a tunnel that was filled with flashing red lights and bubble machines. The energy was electric.
Supporters cheer and hold signs as runners embark on the Nike After Dark half marathon in L.A.
Several brands including Flamingo, Honey Stinger (which gave out free energy gels and snacks) and Beats by Dre had activations along the course. There was even a recovery station with couches, restroom trailers and snacks.
Miles 8-10: The pain sets in
Just before Mile 8, my headphones died and that’s when the hills started to get to me. I felt like I was running up and down a sharp roller coaster. Without music, I was forced to talk myself through the final stretch. But it was in these trenches that I noticed several sweet moments of community care: a volunteer passing out Bengay cream, a group of friends holding up a woman as she limped, runners shouting out their home countries and waving their flags in the wake of the ICE raids that were happening in our city at this very moment. It was a beautiful reminder of how much better we are as people when we support one another.
Supporters record and cheer as runners embark on the Nike women’s half-marathon at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Around Mile 10, I spotted Chris Bennett, Nike’s running global head coach, giving out high-fives and encouraging people to push forward. (He even ran with the last bunch of runners and helped them across the finish line.)
The final mile — or was it?
As I neared the end, I felt bamboozled because there were at least two massive archways that looked like the finish line, but actually weren’t. I still had a ways to go. I could’ve cried tears of joy when I finally reached the end. I clocked in at three hours and three minutes, which I was pleased with because my only goals were to finish, have fun and make it to the concert. The winner was Sofia Camacho, a drag artist and Nike run coach based in New York, who clocked in at one hour, 15 minutes and 25 seconds.
Hundreds of supporters line the course as runners embark on the Nike After Dark Tour in Los Angeles.
After grabbing my medal, I walked as fast as my sore limbs would allow back inside the stadium. The trek felt tortuous because we had to climb up multiple sets of stairs, then journey down a walkway that was roughly 10 levels that felt never-ending until we reached the bottom where the stage was. Some people gave up on watching the show simply because they didn’t have the energy to make it down.
The grand finale: Doechii brings the energy
By the time I got there, I was disappointed to see that Doechii was already on her final two songs of her 30-minute set, but the energy was so high that I quickly forgot and just enjoyed the moment while I could. The show ended just before 10:40 p.m. while some folks were still running including one of my friends who missed the show and wasn’t able to get a pair of Barbie pink Nike slides and socks they were passing out.
The night ends and yet the trek continues
After the show, we were instructed to exit the stadium — thankfully there was an escalator — but I still had to muster up the energy to go back to the entrance at the other side of the stadium so I could retrieve my belongings from the bag check area. My legs were finished by the time I got to my car.
Aside from some logistical issues and long wait times, I enjoyed participating in the Nike After Dark Tour. The course was challenging but doable, and running alongside thousands of women and allies of various ages and backgrounds at night felt empowering. Runners received a ton of freebies, particularly at the bib pickup at the Grove, which included a dri-fit T-shirt and makeup from Milk.
As someone who typically avoids cardio in my workout sessions, this race has inspired me to continue hitting the pavement and exploring this beautiful city on foot. And who knows, I just might sign up for another race.
Runners take off for the women’s half-marathon, which started at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Grupo Firme was unable to show up for its previously planned June 1 set at Napa’s La Onda festival.
The Tijuana band announced the cancellation Friday afternoon on social media.
“Currently, the visas of Grupo Firme and the Music VIP [Entertainment] team are in an administrative process by the U.S. Embassy, a situation that makes it impossible for Grupo Firme’s performance at La Onda Fest to go on as planned,” the band wrote in a statement posted on its Instagram stories. “We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your understanding and, above all else, the love from our U.S. fans.”
Grupo Firme is the latest international musical act facing visa issues since President Trump took office for his second presidential term. Many of these have been música Mexicana artists.
The group’s news came only a week after Mexican singer Julión Álvarez postponed his May 24 show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, after he claimed his work visa had been revoked.
The 42-year-old musician alleged in a May 23 Instagram video that he had received the news of his work visa revocation that day, leaving him and his band unable to travel to Texas for their planned performance. He also claimed he didn’t have a full sense of clarity regarding the ongoing status of his visa and was limited in what he could dispel about the situation.
Also in May, Chicago’s Michelada Fest, a Spanish-language music festival that had programmed several Latin American acts was canceled due to concerns over artists’ visas.
“Due to the uncertainty surrounding artist visas and the rapidly changing political climate, we’re no longer able to guarantee the full experience we had dreamed up for you with all your favorite artists,” the festival’s organizers explained in a statement. “Although we tried to push through, it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to deliver the full lineup as planned.”
The organizers would go on to write that, as an independent outfit, Michelada Fest “can’t afford to take on a big risk with so much uncertainty ahead.”
Grupo Firme, Anitta, Danny Ocean, Tokischa and Luis R. Conriquez were scheduled to perform at the July festival.
During their March 29 show at the University of Guadalajara, the band put an illustrated depiction of Cervantes — a key player in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG — on a mega-screen while playing their song “El Dueño del Palenque.” Videos of the incident were captured on socialmedia.
“I’m pleased to announce that the State Department has revoked the band members’ work and tourism visas. In the Trump Administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners’ access to our country,” said Christopher Landau, the U.S. deputy Secretary of State in April. “The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists.”
Outside of the world of Latino artists, British singer FKA twigs announced in April on Instagram that she had to cancel series of concerts for the month in North America — including a slot at Coachella 2025 — due to “ongoing visa issues.”
MINNEAPOLIS — Police reform and civil rights activists joined thousands of other people Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder at religious services, concerts and vigils nationwide and decry the Trump administration for setting their efforts back decades.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said at a Houston graveside service that Floyd represented all of those “who are defenseless against people who thought they could put their knee on our neck.”
He compared Floyd’s killing to that of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy who was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman.
“What Emmett Till was in his time, George Floyd has been for this time in history,” Sharpton said.
In a park about 2 miles away from Floyd’s grave site, a memorial service was set to take place, followed by five hours of music, preaching, poetry readings and a balloon release.
Events started Friday in Minneapolis with concerts, a street festival and a “self-care fair,” and were to culminate with a worship service, gospel music concert and candlelight vigil on Sunday.
The remembrances come at a fraught moment for activists, who had hoped the worldwide protests that followed Floyd’s murder by police on May 25, 2020, would lead to lasting police reform across the U.S. and a continued focus on racial justice issues.
Events in Minneapolis center around George Floyd Square, the intersection where Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, used his knee to pin Floyd’s neck to the pavement for about 9½ minutes, even as the 46-year-old Black man’s cried, “I can’t breathe.” Even with Minneapolis officials’ promises to remake the Police Department, some activists contend that the progress has come at a glacial pace.
“We understand that change takes time,” Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, said in a statement last week. “However, the progress being claimed by the city is not being felt in the streets.”
The Trump administration moved Wednesday to cancel settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville that called for an overhaul of their police departments following Floyd’s murder and the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Under former President Biden, the U.S. Justice Department had pushed for oversight of local police it had accused of widespread abuses.
President Trump has also declared an end to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the federal government, and his administration is using federal funds as leverage to force local governments, universities and public school districts to do the same. Republican-led states also have accelerated their efforts to stamp out DEI initiatives.
Vancleave and Lafleur write for the Associated Press and reported from Minneapolis and Houston, respectively.
The beef is building between Bruce Springsteen and President Trump.
The Boss did not back down on his fiery rhetoric against Trump on the third night of his “Land of Hopes and Dreams” tour in Manchester, England, on Saturday — a day after Trump lashed out against the legendary singer on Truth Social, calling him an “obnoxious jerk,” a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker,” and writing that he should “keep his mouth shut.”
Springsteen didn’t oblige. In a resolute three-minute speech from the Co-op Live venue, Springsteen thanked his cheering audience for indulging him in a speech about the state of America: “Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore.”
He then repeated many of the lines that he used during a previous Manchester show — the same words that upset Trump to begin with, including the administration defunding American universities, the rolling back of civil rights legislation and siding with dictators, “against those who are struggling for their freedoms.”
Trump’s Truth Social post contained what appeared to be a threat, writing of Springsteen, “We’ll see how it goes for him,” when he gets back to the country. This did not dissuade the “Born in the USA” singer.
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“In my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now,” Springsteen said. “In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. That’s happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.”
In a steady voice, he listed the many concerns of those who oppose Trump, his enablers and his policies.
“They are removing residents off American streets without due process of law and deploying them to foreign detention centers as prisoners. That’s happening now. The majority of our elected representatives have utterly failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government,” Springsteen said as the crowd applauded and yelled its support. “They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”
He finished on a positive note.
“The America I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its many faults, it’s a great country with a great people, and we will survive this moment. Well, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, ‘In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ ”
Springsteen has long been a vocal critic of Trump, and campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Trump is known for his angry diatribes against celebrities who criticize him, including Taylor Swift and Robert DeNiro.
Bruce Springsteen accused the Trump administration of persecuting dissenters during a concert in the UK, an apparent reference to the recent arrests of pro-Palestinian activists. The musician also condemned the US government for “abandoning allies and siding with dictators.”
