As the Essence Festival of Culture prepares to celebrate its 30th birthday in New Orleans this weekend, we look back on the history of the event which for three decades has brought some of the biggest names in popular music to the city over the July 4th weekend.
The event was created to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Essence magazine in 1995. It was the brainchild of New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival founder George Wein. In 1991, while having lunch with Essence’s then-publisher, Edward Lewis, “He (Wein) was talking about the extraordinary role that African-Americans have had in the world through music and that that needed to be celebrated," Lewis said in a June 1995 article in The Times-Picayune.
In its first year, the Essence Music Festival, held July 1-3, 1995, at the Superdome, showcased Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, B.B. King and Anita Baker, to name just a few. Daytime motivational sessions filled rooms inside the Dome. The event drew a crowd of nearly 150,000.
Initially designed as a one-time event, the festival returned for a second year, expanding to include seminars at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as well as musical performances at the Superdome. In the decades since, the list of performers has included Beyonce, Prince, Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliott as well as many local and up-and-coming performers. Essence has been staged in New Orleans every year except 2006, when it moved to Houston while the Superdome underwent repairs following Hurricane Katrina.
Headliners this year include Janet Jackson, Usher, Charlie Wilson, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, and Birdman with a show honoring three decades of New Orleans’ Cash Money artists.
The Essence Festival of Culture returns to the Caesars Superdome and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center over July 4th weekend.