When ESSENCE Festival kicked off in 1995, featuring main stage performances from artists like Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, and Frankie Beverly & Maze, several of our headliners were just children. Usher was 15 and just beginning a soon-to-be legendary R&B career. Victoria Monét was only 5 years old. Megan Thee Stallion had just been born.
Now Usher, that same bright-eyed 15-year-old heartthrob has come to celebrate 20 years of his R&B-defining album on the same stage where Frankie Beverly will hang up his white hat as he bids farewell to performing.
The ESSENCE Festival of Culture has always been a meeting point for all generations to convene and celebrate the essence of what we are, recognizing where we’ve been, and looking forward to where we are going. Occurring on a weekend celebrating national “freedom” established during a time when our ancestors still toiled in bondage, the festival is an unapologetic display of Black Joy and celebration of Black culture in all its forms, expressed in unique fashions across generations.
Only at ESSENCE Festival can you start your day with a chat from VP Kamala Harris, catch a performance from JT of the City Girls at midday, then end your night reminiscing along with the vocals of Charlie Wilson – which, depending on the year you were born, could mean memories ranging anywhere from 1982 with Gap Band’s “Outstanding,” to last Thursday afternoon with Don Toliver’s “ATTITUDE.”
As such, it’s a gathering spot for all generations with something to offer everyone, from our youngest babies to our elders. Whether its grandmas, mothers, and daughters on an annual family pilgrimage, or that weekend Girls (or Guys) Trip for friendship groups or line-siblings in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, or beyond, it’s where we come together to love ourselves freely.
Our nightly concert series is both an opportunity for Silent Generation and Baby Boomers to slow dance and electric slide the night away while Millenials and Gen Z to rock their hips and test the strength of their knees. In a world that seeks to both subjugate and commodify our culture, it remains a safe space where we celebrate it fully and on our own terms.
