Essence Festival Of Culture 2025 Lives Up To Its Name

While the event is technically called the Essence Festival of Culture, one of its biggest draws is the nightly concert featuring some of the biggest names in Black music. But at the 2025 Essence Fest in New Orleans, those names and the music they represent could be seen, heard, and felt throughout the weekend, all over the city — whether that was in the convention hall or just walking the streets of the Big Easy.

If you had to pick an unofficial anthem for the weekend, it’d have to be the 2024 hit from South Carolina native 803Fresh, “Boots On The Ground.” It seemed that every ten minutes, a line dance would break out, with festival attendees answering the chorus question “where them fans at?” with a demonstration that said, “everywhere.” Propelled by a viral TikTok trend and embraced by the populace at large, “Boots On The Ground” joined Cupid’s 2020 single “Flex” as the line dance jingles du jour, becoming part of the long continuum of line dancing songs near and dear to Black culture.

Each night’s concert brought a different perspective to the multiple facets of contemporary Black music, from the sort of thing your mom/auntie/grandma might have played on Saturday morning right before a cleaning frenzy to the hits that soundtrack the average Friday night out.

Speaking of Friday night, the highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly GloRilla’s Friday night set. She even acknowledged the coincidence of her booking, the sweltering heat in New Orleans, and the opening lines of her latest runaway hit, “TGIF”: “It’s 7 pm Friday / It’s 95 degrees.” One of the great things about Glo is that she knows where her talent lies; she lets the dancers dance, and focuses on delivering the absolute heck out of her lyrics.

Also, don’t be surprised if you see Von Dutch make a comeback sometime in the next couple of months. Glo and her dancers were decked out head-to-toe in the once iconic brand favored by millennials in the early 2000s. Yes, even the trucker hats, which we once donned ironically — the younger generation, it seems, has taken a liking to the admittedly tacky accessory, though I’m not sure if they’re making fun of us or just trying to recapture some of the nonchalant optimism of that era.

Even if you couldn’t get into the official concert at the Superdome, there were still plenty of opportunities to catch some of the hottest contemporary artists in Black music at the convention center itself. At AT&T’s stage, Leon Thomas drew a crowd looking to see a performance of his unapologetic smash, “Mutt,” and were treated to a full set of tracks from the album of the same name. To me, this was even more exciting than watching from stadium seating; Leon was literally close enough for some fans in the front row to touch.

Saturday night’s show was utterly captivated by the magnetic presence of Erykah Badu, whose wit played up an unexpected appearance from Anthony Anderson, the difference in camera angles on the stadium screens between Badu and her ASL interpreter, and just how much performance time had been set aside for her in a show that ran increasingly late as it continued. “I got 26 dollars worth of music to get through,” she joked as she launched into a remixed rendition of “Didn’t Cha Know” for her finale.

By now, you may have encountered reports of the lateness of the concerts in general. Now, I’ve never attended this particular festival before, but I have been led to believe that this is unusual, even for Essence Festival. In general, I’m used to concerts running late — especially where Lauryn Hill is involved, no shade intended — and look… we all know “CP Time” is a thing. But whatever the behind-the-scenes reasons for the delays were, there should still be a certain expectation of decorum if you’re already asking folks to wait until 10:30 pm to see Nas, and damn near midnight for Master P, the local icon who was celebrating his final performance before hanging up his mic for a coaching position at the University of New Orleans.

But those are minor quibbles, at least for me. While most folks probably don’t get to go to quite as many concerts as a music writer, I’d argue that the entire point of Essence Festival is not the music, but the opportunity to immerse oneself in the Culture. That’s why it’s called the Essence Festival of Culture, not the Essence Music Festival. In Los Angeles, there are arguably fewer opportunities to take in the breadth of unfiltered Blackness minus the self-conscious code-switching that life here sort of requires.

I don’t think there was a single time in my life I was called “baby” by more people I did not know than this past weekend. That New Orleans vocal tick was accompanied by the unmistakable accent that made every phrase sound more musical. The joy that accompanied every outbreak of line dancing was palpable — and lasted long after the fans were folded back into purses. Every salesperson at one of the Black-owned businesses with a booth in the convention hall gave a hard sell, but peppered with the sorts of compliments we only give each other (I’m not giving you the codes, either, keep it moving).

Another thing that felt minor, but that impressed itself on me once I got back home; not a single customer service person in Louisiana was nice to me. I know that feels like something that would actually be annoying — and in, the moment, it was — but think about it. They don’t have to be nice. That expectation of acceptability, the performance around it, felt unnecessary in a place where seemingly everybody is related, everyone comes from the same place, and everyone shares that same acknowledgement that having to work on 4th of July weekend is some ol’ bullshit. Get your lil’ pralines and get on, tourist. Having worked in the service industry and dealt with my fair share of Karens on a holiday, I appreciate that.

In New Orleans, just for a weekend, Essence attendees get to glimpse a version of the world centered around us, around our music, our language, our customs, and the parts of our history that don’t give us PTSD. It’s worth the trip or that experience alone. For the next few weeks, I’ll be hearing those fans flapping and toes tapping, and looking forward to the new one.