Not many festivals break attendance records in their 19th year. But then, most festivals aren’t Essence, which saw a record 540,000 people attend four days of programming in New Orleans.
?That includes 125,000 paying ticket-holders who saw concerts by Maxwell, New Edition, Solange, Brandy, Trey Songz and Beyonce at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Then there’s the record 120,000 people per day who came to see speakers, performers and sponsored content at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, all for free, with visits from Kevin Hart, Fantasia, Janelle Monae, Steve Harvey and many more bold-faced names.
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?Along with the big stars, virtually every major blue-chip brand was present, as category leaders from fast food to retail to consumer electronics have been sponsoring the event in full force for at least seven years. Not only do marketers plan some of their biggest African-American-themed activations of the year around Essence, they organize their social calendars around it, too. ?
This year’s Essence attracted nine sponsors, two media partners and 14 vendors at the convention center, a record number of activity for the event and a testament to the growing buying power of the black audience. A 2011 study by Nielsen and the National Newspaper Assn. estimated that African-Americans’ buying power would reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, noting that the number of black households with an income of $75,000 or higher was growing at a higher rate than in the general population. At Essence alone, attendees spend some $100 million that benefits the local economy—nearly double the $51.1 million that benefited the 2012 Bonnaroo neighboring market of Manchester, Tenn.?
Some of the blatant branding would be criticized at a festival like South by Southwest or Lollapalooza, equally massive festivals whose growing embrace of sponsors in recent years has caught a fair amount of flak (the Doritos vending machine stage, anyone?). But at Essence, it’s not only an embedded part of the experience, it’s a direct enhancement. Artists like Doug E. Fresh and Fantasia played gratis concerts on a stage surrounded by a makeshift McDonald’s storefront as ads for McCafé flashed across a jumbo screen. A DJ played new jack swing from a platform built around a mock-up of the Walmart electronics department. Verizon sponsored a live Q&A with comedian Hart the weekend his massive concert film “Let Me Explain” was released.?
Essence communications president Michelle Ebanks notes that 2014 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Essence Festival, an occasion that will give the event a chance to blow itself up even more. “From talking to our partners, the mayor of New Orleans, our friends in the industry, there is clearly an increasing need for people to connect with the community,” she says. ?
And yet, a thorough search for the mainstream media outlets who covered Essence in its record-breaking year yields surprisingly little results. The New York Times, L.A. Times and even Time Warner sister brand CNN all sat out this year’s festival, often mentioning it only in news stories comparing it with the inaugural BET Experience, the three-day festival that debuted in Los Angeles the weekend prior to tap into the same sponsorship-dollars opportunity. Only MSNBC had a notable presence among outlets outside of the core of black media, and that’s largely because it was a first-time media sponsor.
?Why the disconnect? Ebanks likens the coverage of Essence to an interview she read with David Simon, creator of “The Wire.” “They were asking, ‘Why is this such a phenomenon?’ And he said, ‘The majority of white people don’t see the black community. They’re just not in it. They drive past it, but it’s not something that’s part of their consciousness.’ And that’s what we face, from coverage from some of the largest media brands. We can’t really tell anyone about this festival—you really do have to see it for yourself.”