New Orleans’ biggest music festival becomes the highlight of the Carefree City summer cultural program. The Essence Music Festival, or Essence Fest, has been rightly described by renowned music critics as the premier event in the United States devoted to the art of black Americans.
Every year on the festival stage black pop icon Beyoncé, Prince, Missy Elliott, Destiny’s Child, Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Erykah Badu, Lionel Richie are among the festival’s guests of honor, while prominent politicians, religious leaders, business and cultural figures are also in attendance. The grand celebration of pop culture was founded in 1994, on the 25th anniversary of Essence, the most popular women’s magazine covering fashion and style in the African-American community in the United States.
Since its inception, the Essence Festival has traditionally been held on the weekend closest to the national Independence Day holiday. In its history, the festival has only left its hometown once – in 2006 due to the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. In a single weekend, the “birthplace of jazz” hosts about 400,000 guests, more than the number of officially registered residents of the “Big Simplicity.”
Not coincidentally, the mayor of New Orleans called the music festival “one of the most important engines for the city’s economy.” The centerpiece of the Essence Festival is invariably the Mercedes-Benz Superdome arena, where the main music stage is housed. The outdoor portion of the festival unfolds in the form of a large fair occupying the streets of New Orleans’ Central Business District as well as the grounds of the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center.
Artisans, artists, cooks, and other small businesses from America’s African American diaspora present their wares to the public. There are also free concerts, tastings, seminars, lectures, and workshops.