Rain delayed both nights of the Make the World Better’s benefit concert weekend, but the crowd didn’t care. They laid blankets on the still-wet ground, took off their shoes and squelched through two nights of music — singing, dancing and cheering.
The concert weekend saw six artists take over FDR Park, bringing music back to the park for the first time since the Lollapalooza music festival 31 years ago. Lucy Dacus and Remi Wolf headlined Friday’s and Sunday’s concerts, respectively.
The unofficial headliner was former Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin. He is the co-founder of the Make the World Better charity, which organized the concert weekend. The charity’s main mission is to revitalize dilapidated community parks in Philadelphia, and profits from the concert will go towards its latest project, Hart Park in South Kensington.
The concerts
Both nights saw delays due to weather, with Sunday’s opening being pushed back an hour and a half due to heavy rain and Friday’s event needing a temporary evacuation due to thunderstorms, which caused a two-hour delay.
Maybe that’s what gave both nights a certain electricity. The crowd was music-hungry after the delays. “I’m OK to get rained on to see these people,” Rowe Schepps said.
Schepps, a Temple student, attended the Sunday concert and was indeed among those who got rained on as they stood in a line that snaked a half-mile down Broad Street just to get to the official, gated line of the concert. It then stretched another half-mile to the actual venue.
Inside, there were a dozen tents, vendors and food trucks, including James Beard nominated Tabachoy, catered to the soggy crowd. The jovial atmosphere of collective dampness kept the energy high as opening acts Magdelena Bay and Hop Along (a Philadelphia group) took the stage on their respective nights.
For most, including Schepps, the music was the main draw. Schepps knew it was a benefit concert, but was unaware of who the benefactor was.
This changed as Barwin took the stage both nights before the headliner, explaining a bit about the Make the World Better organization and what it does.
Next, a video was played that went into detail about the projects. The crowd cheered as the video ticked through the group’s projects, including an update of the Waterloo Playground and rebuilding the Vare Recreation Center.
After the video, Barwin concluded as any good Philadelphian should, shouting, “Go Birds!” The crowd returned the gesture and gave an E-A-G-L-E-S chant for good measure.
The crowd then turned that energy towards the headliners, cheering as they entered the stage on their respective nights. Both artists had a couple thousand people surge toward the fences in front of the stage.
Barwin’s philanthropic turn
Barwin traces the impetus for this weekend’s concert to a bikeride to the Eagles’ practice facility at the NovaCare Complex.
“I used to ride by Ralph Brooks Park, which was this small park with a basketball court and a playground. And it was pretty rundown, but there were always kids there playing,” Barwin said.
The kids’ presence there inspired Barwin to undertake what was supposed to be a relatively small transformation of the park, but the project kept expanding.
“It turned into a two-year project of getting to know everybody in the neighborhood and talking to them about what they wanted to see happen in a park,” he said.
This helped kickstart the full-blown charity, which later merged with Jeffrey Tubbs’ nonprofit, Urban Roots. Make the World Better has revitalized four parks and is currently working on Hart Park and planning a future project for 2026. All of the projects emphasize listening to the community while planning.
The founders “never wanted to come in and just fill the playground and kind of do it however they wanted to and leave,” said Jesse Rendell, the charity’s executive director of three years. “It was always about trying to understand what the community is about and make sure the projects are reflective of the communities.”
“We know that these projects aren’t successful unless you partner with people on them. Most importantly, partner with the people that use the parks,” Barwin said. “They know how they want to use it when they’re going to use it. So we try to lean in and use their expertise to do that.”
Barwin’s commitment to Philadelphia and its community might come as a bit of surprise if you looked at the tattoo on his bicep, which shows Detroit’s skyline, not Philadelphia’s. He also started his professional football career in Houston and played more recently in New York and Los Angeles.
But the four seasons with the Eagles, from 2013 to 2016, were special. The stint included his best year as a player, 2014, when he recorded 14.5 sacks and earned an invitation to the Pro Bowl, the NFL’s all-star game. And he found a home.
“Me and my wife and my family, we fell in love with Philly,” Barwin said. So he’s committed his time and energy to improving the city, bringing joy to as many people as he can, through music, sports and parks.
(Editor’s Note: Nate Harrington’s WHYY News internship has been made possible thanks to the generous support from the Dow Jones News Fund O’Toole Family Foundation Internship.)
