Almost all Parkway museums and institutions plan to be open during the event.
Up to 50,000 people are expected to attend each day, with music to begin at 2 p.m. and end at 11.
"I'm thinking about the size of the crowd, and whether the people in charge are prepared to handle it," said Trish Thompson, who with her husband, Joel Katz, lives near the Franklin Institute. She doesn't expect concertgoers to be quiet and still - it is a music festival - but "on the other hand, I don't want people shooting each other."
At this year's Welcome America Independence Day celebration, chaos erupted near the Parkway when a 16-year-old boy shot two teenagers.
"I think we just want things to stay under control," said Thompson, knowing the challenges that come with big Parkway events. "We don't want people not having a good time, but when they start screaming and yelling and threatening each other -."
The Budweiser-sponsored festival offers Philadelphia the chance to present itself as a hip urban backdrop for major American music stars. It also offers potential for trouble in the combination of long hours, lines, hot sun, enclosed spaces, and alcohol.
"We think it is great for the city to host this type of national, multicultural music event," Parkway neighbors Mimi and Jim McKenzie said an an e-mail. "Given that ticket sales are limited to 40,000 to 50,000, we don't think the concert will be nearly as disruptive as the typical Fourth of July."
The couple, who live on the north side of the Parkway near 26th Street, said two of their children had bought tickets, excited that they could walk to a major music event.
David Searles, president of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, said members intended to welcome visitors from other cities and neighborhoods. The group has been talking with city event planners about the logistics of the concert, and will provide more information to neighbors as it becomes available, he said.
During the holiday weekend, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be open on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The planned Aug. 31 performance by the jazz singer Rhenda Fearrington, offered through the museum's "Art After 5" program, has been postponed to Nov. 23. Monday is the last day of the 12-week run of the special exhibit "Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia."
The Rodin Museum will close Sept. 1 and 2 but will be open on Labor Day. The Barnes Foundation will be open all three days, as will the Franklin Institute and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
"In general, in theory, we're excited about large events on the Parkway," said Moran, "even though it causes the normal concerns of trash and crowds. But it's good to get large amounts of people into the city, good for businesses and our members."
The city excels at putting on big events, he said, and the Labor Day crowd will be a fraction of the 500,000 who typically turn out on July Fourth. At the same time, he noted, that larger crowd comes and goes in a day.
"A multiple-day event," Moran said, " ... it's going to be a different kind of animal."
Most different is the plan to limit a chunk of the Parkway to paying ticket-holders. The dual fences will run in a rough oval from the Art Museum north to Pennsylvania Avenue, southeast to 22d Street, south to Park Towne Place, northwest to 24th Street, north to Callowhill Street at Eakins Oval, and then west back to the Art Museum.
A spokesman for Mayor Nutter said similar fenced barriers have worked well at other festivals, notably at Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park. Lollapalooza organizers declined to discuss their fence system or its effectiveness.
Jay Sweet, producer of the Newport (R.I.) Folk Festival, said that if he were putting on Made in America, he'd be thinking about all that could go wrong and trying to plan for contingencies.
Say you're a promoter who blasted out thousands of e-mails telling people to avoid traffic and ride bicycles. As you're congratulating yourself for the huge numbers arriving by bike, it becomes apparent there aren't enough bike racks. And bikes are being stolen. And people are angry. And that the whole mess, small compared with the thousands of people who came and went happily, will be the lead story in the next day's newspaper.
During Made in America, Sweet said, it will be important for organizers to communicate with the crowd.
If all else fails, whether it's a downpour or trouble in the beer line, he said, give the microphone to ?uestlove, the respected Philadelphia-born drummer for the Roots.
"I don't care if you're the fire marshal or the mayor," Sweet said, "you'll be less effective than ?uestlove."
The Roots, alas, are not scheduled to perform.
Contact Jeff Gammage at 215-854-2415, jgammage@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @JeffGammage.
