Essence Festival of Culture Tickets

Essence Fest is great festival for first timers! It was fun, jam packed with surprises, and leaves you exhausted by the end of it all. There are events for every interest: music, movies, beauty. You also learn about business and social media. It’s a great place to network. There are seminars you can attend, and having the app gets you an inside look on events run by the festival. I really enjoyed my time here. For the small details…many of the festival workers had no idea of the layout or where to recommend that you go when you have questions. Many of them didn’t know much about the station they were in charge of managing and weren’t sure who to let have access and who not to. People handed things out that they didn’t know anything about so it just made for MANY confusing situations. Additionally I was not aware that the convention center activities would be over by early evening so one day we expected to have more time and didn’t. My suggestions for those that choose to visit in the future: 1. Wear comfortable shoes 2. Show up early. Parking can be confusing. 3. Be prepared to shift your plans. Things can change quickly with the weather. 4. It is HOT! Prepare for chafing 5. Purchase event tickets in advance! VIP experience is worth it! We made our own custom fragrances, had a seating area, free drink, and complementary hours d'oeuvres. 6. Download the app! Just do it…trust me. 7. The fits are fittin! So dress to impress! 8. Stay as close to downtown New Orleans as you can (walking distance is best). Traffic will be backed up! Also know how to navigate out of the immediate area because navigation will be down on your phone. 9. GO TO ACME OYSTER HOUSE AND GET CHARGRILLED OYSTERS! (The one in Metairie is the best imho). 10. Bring a positive attitude and soak up the culture! Try to have fun no matter what happens.

I had a blast at Essence Fest with my sorors. Everyone was so friendly and the food was the bomb.

After each performance there was a 30-40 plus intermission to acknowledge sponsors, which is great! However, the time was too long! Performances should have been back to back with at least a 10-20 min break in between each performance! Concert was extremely long! Waiting until after 2am for someone to come out to perform, was ridiculous! Some performers wasn’t introduced, like Jill Scott. Jill just started singing out of nowhere! Tacky. I didn’t go to the last day of performance because I knew it would be extremely long for no reason. Ticket wasted and money lost on a 3 day concert pass. There was no way to recover lost money for a ticket that I didn’t get to use! I want to come back to the Essence Fest next year but skeptical because of the wait time between each performance.

Essence Festival #50YearsOfHipHop was off the chain! Worth every dollar!

This pass Friday Saturday and Sunday of 2023 will be days i will never forget. The essence fest in NOLA was prepared for all of the tourist that showed up. All headliners showed up and their performances were top tier. It did not quiet start at 6pm as the ticket indicated but it was well worth the wait. Each night the show ended by 2am. Every performer put on a great show and there were great host. My only complaint was the temperature/ air conditional in the Superdome should have been lowered to accommodate the large quantity of people that attended every night. Overall i am very satisfied with how things flowed during the day time at the convention center and during concert times at the superdome. The food and wine festival was very nice but the lines were extremely long to grab a bite to eat but i thank god they hosted this part inside this year. The heat was un real this year. Hopefully they will do more sound checks in the future because on Friday night the sound was horrible it all sounded muffled. I can not wait until next year !!

I really enjoyed the Essence Experience. All of the performers were phenomenal and we had such a great time that my voice is still trying to recover two days later! The only feedback I have is about the venue which was the sound. Sometimes it was cacophonous, other times the mic went out. Things were improved on the second day and even better on the third day though there were some glitches here and there. All in all, I’m definitely coming back! It was also definitely worth it to buy the three day ticket as even if we wanted to go for just two days - it would have been the price of the three day when bought separately.

Devastated....Never made it to essence due to ticket issues thru ticket master

I attended the concert for Essence fest 2023 on saturday. It was the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop and there were entertainers/musicians from 80s until present. The first thing was the lack of New Orleans based musicians. While I know 1-2 were on the other days, they were rappers and New Orleans being a diverse musical city (and the other acts included singers and rappers) it seemed odd to not have more local talent. The audience didnt fill in until after 10pm and the main acts didnt come on until close to midnight, so if you stayed from doors open until then, it was 6+ hours in those cramped hard stadium seats. Lastly, where was the merchandise that people could purchase to support these artists? There were non approved vendors outside but thats it? A few of the acts were great and made me want to see them again in a different concert but not sure I will be going back.

Booking was easy as can be. Ordered 5 tickets with ease! Will highly recommend!

Excellent Afican cultural experience 2023 Let's do it again

The tv in my section did not work, we had four tickets and was unable to see main screen due to the ceiling above us. Lauren Hill was late music was horrible. I’ve seen her in concert twice prior both were great. Decided not to attend concert third day. Jill Scott was amazing!!!!!!!!!!

The line-up was good but the concerts were too long. I started to get sleepy and restless at times waiting on the headliner to come on after 12am. Essence fest should definitely bring back the super lounges where smaller artists perform.

I was disappointed with the fact that most of the entertainers that you advertised and I paid for wasn't there. I don't know if you want to call this false advertisement. I should have had the option to decide if I still wanted to still go. I had no choice, but to go. There was a lot of Hip Hop, which I am not really into, even though their performances were good, that is not what I paid for and really wanted to hear. I expected better from Essence.

Everything went so smoothly and I enjoyed it to the maximum

The venue had banners blocking the section and management refused to move them. An interpreter (ASL) was placed in front of a section where no one was sitting. (The venue didn’t sell tickets for this certain section) When we moved to be closer to the interpreter, the venue used police force to move us. If the same venue is chosen for next year (Caesar Superdome, New Orleans) I will have to reconsider buying tickets again

Had a great time at Essence fest, my only complaint is not with the Festival but with how tight the seating was on the floor. We were wayyy too close for comfort. The rows were way too close together which did not allow for much dancing to take place. This is more so with the venue vs the festival itself, we are not size 2s. Otherwise tremendous event, the sound team had a bunch of hiccups not sure who is responsible but there were a lot of mic errors and even through my earplugs the music drowned out the artists.

Megan was worth the trip, she is the best….and lil Wayne the surprise artist was the cherry on top. This was the Sunday night show I will be back next year… Great for the culture….

I did NOT expect all of the commercial breaks! Those clearly could be put on for the majority of the opening and within a REAL intermission. WHAT is Hip Hop without LL, HELL Will Smith could of used a come back & Jazzy Jeff probably would have liked the chance to be on stage. Spinderella and MC Lyte could have been on stage all 3 nights. What am I saying? You could have ROCKED MY BELLS with LL and some other rappers. A few one hit wonders would have been impressive "I SAW YOU"do it before. Warn me about changing seats, no super Lounges and an akward stage in advance. Do better - I don't want our relationship to end up in the friendzone as Hulu & Hangout.

The entire event was an awful experience. Will not be attending another.

The Essence Festival is something I've wanted to attend for decades. It mainly met expectations and the app was very helpful for knowing what was scheduled when. However, didn't give you the location of many events so I had to run around finding staff to help me find certain events. I missed Deon Cole's talk for this reason. Long lines for everything too meant I had to attend fewer events. Overall a great event.