Grateful for the opportunity to cover the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture presented by Coca-Cola. This annual festival is such a treasure to our community and has stood the test of time for 55 years! Held in New Orleans the event features a star-studded lineup of musical performances, motivational speakers, and cultural events that highlight the best of Black excellence.
I was invited again this year to cover the “press room” for Essence Festival/Getty Images and ya’ll… I have entirely too much to share about my 4 day experience. For this post I’m going to focus on a few exciting moments“behind the scenes”.
Let’s GO!
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center:
This is where the press room / my home office was located… including all of the excitement on the Essence Stage, Food & Wine Festival, Essence Film Festival, BeautyCon , Soko Mrkt and more. I had so much fun hanging out with my photog buddies and capturing all of the wonderful talent who stopped by.
CLICK HERE to see all of my PressRoom/Getty coverage for 2024 and 2025
Next stop was Caeser’s Superdome:
Y’all, I was dead tired from working all day… but proud to say I accomplished my goal by attending at least 1 of the 3 day concerts. Although it’s my duty work… I also wanted to get the full experience of the festival. I didn’t even change my clothes… too much time in my hotel room would lead to me getting in the bed. LOL! I dropped off my gear and jumped in the Uber for Saturday’s lineup which included Donell Jones, Davido, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott.
I entered the Superdome through the production & back stage area:
Made my way around the backstage area…
and into the arena to see my friend Aaron Thornton/Getty Images at the soundboard! It was a quick stop… and I was so amazed to see how far away he was from the stage. It takes a HUGE lens to make it all happen and I was proud to see him doing his thing. Ya’ll this is where some of your favorite performance… stage pics come from!!
Next stop Erykah Badu: I have photographed her many times… but this was my first time actually being able to sit and enjoy an Erykah Badu performance. It was very unique, thought provoking and brilliant all at the same time. She gave us of our favorites like Tyrone, On & On and Didn’t Cha Know… while sending strong messages about empowerment.
Check out this small clip of ERYKAH’s grand entrance “only”…
I didn’t sit for her entire set because I was running out of gas and planning to leave. I wanted to make one last stop to the press room and had a long way to go. So good to see & chat with some of my media buddies from ATL, DC, NO… and to my surprise… ya’ll Erykah Badu arrived! Everyone was SOOO excited to see her up close and personal.
In this clip she talks about her exchange of energy with the audience:
**Dear Readers***
I gave it my best. The last performance of the evening would happen without me. The clock turned 12:00 am & I was done. I hustled my way out of the venue and took my old bones back to the hotel. I learned later on Jill Scott appeared on the stage right after I left the press room. LOL! Gotta love it 🙁
Sunday morning I got up, ate breakfast and reported back to the convention center to work my last festival day. Caught some exciting moments with my girls from the ATL, headed to airport for a safe arrival back to LA!
Sending a huge thanks to the Essence /Getty Images team for having me. 🙂
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