{"id":91958,"date":"2025-07-25T17:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/91958\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T17:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T17:42:09","slug":"philadelphias-wanamaker-building-to-host-performances-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/91958\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia’s Wanamaker Building to host performances this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

The Wanamaker Organ at the former Macy\u2019s store in Philadelphia will roar once again.\n<\/p>\n

Two initiatives were announced Friday that will re-activate the now dormant retail space that once was home to a sprawling Macy\u2019s department store<\/a>. The annual Christmas light show and Dickens Village attractions will be revived during the holiday season, and Opera Philadelphia will program a series of events inside the empty store from September through December called Pipe Up!\n<\/p>\n

Visit Philadelphia head Kathryn Ott Lovell, in partnership with the owner of the Wanamaker Building TF Cornerstone, has coordinated a fundraising campaign to raise $350,000 to bring back the holiday attractions inside the former Macy\u2019s that have been beloved by Philadelphians and visitors for generations.\n <\/p>\n

At the time of the announcement Friday morning, Ott Lovell said more than $200,000 had already been raised.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we found out Macy\u2019s would be closing it was my first thought \u2013 and I\u2019m sure many of yours: \u2018What would happen to the light show and the Dickens Village?,\u2019\u201d Ott Lovell said at the announcement of the campaign.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTo imagine a future without this experience for my family, for your families was simply heartbreaking,\u201d she said. \u201cThese aren\u2019t just holiday attractions. They represent the heart of our holiday season and the spirit of our city.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The Wanamaker Light Show was introduced in 1956 and estimates say it attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators to the Wanamaker Grand Court every holiday season. The Dickens Village walk-through tableau launched in 1985 at another department store, Strawbridge\u2019s, then moved to Macy\u2019s in 2006 when the former closed.
\n\"CharactersCharacters from the Dickens Village sing carols outside the Wanamaker Building, launching a campaign to raise funds to preserve the holiday tradition. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s holiday traditions not only allow its residents to, in the words of a transformed Scrooge, \u201ckeep Christmas in my heart,\u201d but also boost the city\u2019s economy. Acting commerce director Karen Fegely said the city\u2019s holiday attractions draw 400,000 downtown during the winter season\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of them are from outside Philadelphia,\u201d she said. \u201cThat translates to an estimated $31.7 million dollars in total economic impact for the region. It\u2019s clear to me that preserving these traditions is also about supporting jobs, small businesses and the long-term vitality of our city.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The fall series \u201cPipe Up!\u201d is supported by a $1 million grant from the Wyncote Foundation, which will allow Opera Philadelphia to hire additional staff to focus on programming the Wanamaker Building.\n<\/p>\n

Opera general director Anthony Ross Costanzo said the \u201cPipe Up!\u201d series is still in the planning stages but will feature partnerships with local performance groups such as Ballet X, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, FringeArts and others yet to be announced\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that we can fill all 400,000 square feet of the store,\u201d Costanzo said. \u201cHowever, there\u2019s the historic Greek Hall, which is really beautiful with a theater organ, there\u2019s the main space, and of course there\u2019s the organ. There are some ancillary rooms where there used to be a makeup counter. We\u2019re looking at what we can activate and how we can move people through the space.\u201d
\n\"AnthonyOpera Philadelphia General Director Anthony Roth Costanzo announces the company will program a series of events called \u201dPipe Up.\u2019at the Wanamaker Building this fall, funded by a $1 million grant from the Wyncote Foundation. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPipe Up!\u201d will open with a concert Sept. 7 featuring the organ, called \u201cMeet Me at the Eagle.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

When it was built in 1911, the Wanamaker Building was the largest retail building in the world. John Wanamaker, in a characteristic gesture of theatrical grandeur, bought the world\u2019s largest pipe organ from the St. Louis World\u2019s Fair and built it into his five-story center court.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":91959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,30572,60928,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,60929],"class_list":["post-91958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-macys","tag-organ","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wanamakers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114915111376235209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}