Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to New Orleans this weekend to bask in the glory of Black excellence. The crowd — mostly women — will hear Michelle Obama speak and watch performances by the likes of Cardi B and Patti LaBelle. They’ll fellowship, shop and enjoy the city’s cuisine.
The Essence Festival of Culture has been held every Fourth of July weekend since 1995, and this year’s comes at a particularly fraught time for the magazine, the event and the country.
Once considered the pinnacle of festivals celebrating the Black experience, the good will attendees had toward the gathering began to crack last year, after social media was flooded with multiple gripes about the lack of on-site organization, late performances and the feeling that it was turning against its core audience, both in focus and values. The latter concern was particularly tied to an eyebrow-raising partnership with Target that came just after the shopping hub was boycotted over its shift away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
It was not Fyre Fest, but attendees felt they deserved better.
Add to that the political and cultural climate in the country — and in Louisiana in particular, where a recently approved Congressional map eliminated one of its two majority-Black House districts.
