Forbes Under 30 music festival free fun for VIPs and everybody else

A white sign fluttered from a fourth-floor balcony at the Piazza at Schmidts where six young men and women sipped from bottles and red plastic cups, music blaring below.

"Yo Wiz," the sign read, calling out to rapper Wiz Khalifa, "After Party Over Here."

The best party in the city on Sunday did, indeed, seem to be at the Under 30 music festival, where Khalifa and others played as part of the Forbes Under 30 Summit. The four-day event, which kicked off with the free concert, is bringing billionaires, venture capitalists, business tycoons, and young entrepreneurs together in Philadelphia through Wednesday.

In Northern Liberties, summit attendees had access to an area not far from the stage restricted to those with special passes.

For everyone else, the day was simply about music. Hundreds of 20-somethings were bundled up in scarves, puffy coats, and beanies, still guzzling beer as temperatures tumbled.

One of the performers in the first act, Philadelphia hip-hoppers OCD: Moosh & Twist, moved swiftly across the stage though one had an arm in a sling. The duo blasted their tunes into the microphone and briefly covered songs such as Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot."

The crowd swayed, waved hands, and sang along. Whiffs of marijuana occasionally filled the air. On a balcony from which many Piazza residents watched, a man in a zombie mask rocked his head and raised his fists in a pumped-up frenzy.

Forbes selected Philadelphia for the event because of the city's booming millennial population, represented by, among others, Karly Grindstaff, 26, who moved to Philadelphia from Asheville, N.C., to enroll in graduate programs at Temple and Drexel Universities.

"There's so many under-30s here," she said, staying warm next to her friend near the stage. Her request for the Forbes event, modeled after the annual South by Southwest music festival in Texas: "Keep it coming."

Faran Malik, 23, wearing a red, white, and blue bandana around his head, said he was most excited to see Dutch DJ Afrojack.

"These are big names," he said.

Daniel Creswell, 35, of Philadelphia, said having the event was good for the city.

"We need stuff like this, especially for young people," he said. Though not everyone was young - a few feet from Creswell, a sixtyish man in a striped blue suit jacket moved to the music.

Creswell smiled. "Everybody's enjoying themselves out here," he said.