New Orleans is being overrun by smart, good looking, well dressed, mostly black, people who have come from all around to celebrate the Essence Festival. It touts itself as a music festival and the artist line up is quite impressive, but it’s way more than that. It is a festival that celebrates empowerment and its aim is to arm all who come with words of wisdom, tools for living, and general self improvement techniques to take home to their communities and spread the Essence.
Wow, you say, how does a musical festival purport to do all that – well the Essence Festival does all that and more. We are thankful after a Katrina hiatus that it has found its rightful home here in New Orleans – the only city – the city that needs to listen to the message – the only place where the Essence is what’s is all about.