The 2008 Essence Musical Festival, presented by Coca Cola, takes over New Orleans this weekend, with entertainment, empowerment, food, funk and crowds expected to top 200,000.
Three years after Hurricane Katrina forced the country’s largest black music fest to retreat for one year to Houston, the festival in New Orleans from July 4-6 will honor R&B great Patti LaBelle and also bring to the stage of the SuperDome stars such as Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Chris Rock, Keyshia Cole, Jill Scott, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Morris Day & The Time and LL Cool J. And in some of the SuperDome’s Superlounges, more legends and even up-and-coming stars will perform.
"One of the challenges for us every year is to make the festival a bigger and better experience for our loyal festivalgoers,” said Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications.
“Last year, our homecoming to New Orleans was absolutely amazing, so we wanted to make sure that we maintained that exultant spirit of recovery. We worked very hard to secure the best talent, from performers like Rihanna, new to the Essence Music Festival stage, to an all-star tribute to living legend Patti Labelle -- we wanted something our multi-generational audience could enjoy,” Ebanks told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
While the stage performances and empowerment seminars are main attractions, the food vendors also are a main course.
New Orleans resident Morris Douglas and his sister Pamela Douglas were getting ready Tuesday for their 10th appearance at the festival, with Douglas Red Beans and Pralines to be set up to serve festival goes at the Morial Convention Center.
Morris Douglas was getting a jump start on cooking pralines. They’ll cook the beans during the event.
“I guess we’ll cook more than 500 pounds of beans over the three days,” Morris Douglas
told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “My sister and I do this every year. We look forward to seeing the people come out looking good, acting good and spending money,” he said.
At Douglas Red Beans and Pralines, you can buy a plate of red beans and rice with a sausage link for $7, and another $3 will get you a homemade praline. Douglas also makes vegetarian red beans and rice, adding more vegetables to make it creamy. The vegetarian dish costs $6.
Douglas is proud of the fact that he and his sister have been invited to return.
“Every year someone asks us where our restaurant is located. We don’t have one. We take vacation from our regular jobs to do this. I guess people like it because we get to come back each year,” he said.
In addition to the festival food, hundreds of restaurants -- 913 to be exact -- are now open in metropolitan New Orleans according to the Greater New Orleans Conventions and Visitors Bureau. And that number does not include fast food establishments.
New Orleans entertainment and hospitality industry was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but steady rebuilding has restored many of the venues that were damaged by the storm and brought in some new ones too.
A total of 33,500 hotel rooms are available now in New Orleans at more than 200 locations. Since 2005, most hotels have been renovated, according to the convention and visitors bureau.
While concert events require tickets, the daytime empowerment seminars at the convention center are free and open to the public.
Included in this year’s line-up is a celebration with New Orleans native and producer Tyler Perry and also a CNN event featuring Roland Martin and Soledad O’Brien entitled “Reclaiming the Dream.”
Essence partnered with CNN to have a survey conducted that will be the basis for the “Reclaiming the Dream” discussion.
That survey, released on Tuesday, shows great contrast in the views blacks and whites in America have on race.
Here are just a few of the results:
- When asked about racial discrimination against blacks, 43 percent of blacks surveyed said it was a very serious problem, while only 11 percent of whites said it was a very serious problem. More whites -- 46 percent -- ranked it as a somewhat serious problem while 44 percent of the blacks surveyed said the problem was somewhat serious.
- When asked about the quality of life blacks, 58 percent of the blacks surveyed said life for black men has gotten better over the past 40 years while 85 percent of whites said life for black men had gotten better in that period. In response to the same question regarding women, 75 percent of blacks said life for black women has gotten better over the past 40 years, while 87 percent of whites said life for black women has gotten better in that period.
Angela Burt-Murray, editor in chief of Essence, said the CNN discussion is an example of the solution-oriented programming offered at the festival each year.
In addition to race, other topics being discussed this year include the state of the black family, education, HIV-AIDS and the changing face of black leadership. Confirmed participants include Julianne Malveaux, Hill Harper, the Rev. T.D. Jakes, Bill Cosby, Perry and Tom Joyner, Burt-Murray said.
The Essence Music Festival means more than $100 million for the New Orleans economy each year, Ebanks said.
“The Essence Music Festival continues to contribute significantly to the economic and cultural rebirth of New Orleans,” Ebanks said. “Having the community turn out in large numbers means jobs for our brothers and sisters and opportunities for small businesses in the Big Easy.”
