How Essence Fest Turned Its Back on Black Women
Once a sacred space for sisterhood and celebration, the Essence Festival has shifted its focus from honoring Black women to chasing broader appeal and corporate dollars. For longtime attendees like Sheletta Brundidge, the betrayal cuts deep — especially after the festival’s latest sponsorship deal with Target.
I was an Essence Festival fan for decades. Along with my beloved pack of girlfriends, I first attended in the early 2000s and we all fell in love with the annual event.
That’s why I’m so disillusioned with how we have been sold out by the Essence Festival, which has revealed itself to care more about green dollars than Black women.
For me, attending the festival was an extension of the love and reverence I felt for Essence magazine. Like so many Black women, I grew up running to mailboxes to get the latest edition so I could study and admire the images of the beautiful Black women icons that we didn’t see in most publications — Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Aretha Franklin.
The Essence Festival continued this celebration of Black women. It connected us with our past while we doubled down on our personal connections and saw the brilliant Black women icons of the future.
The festival was the essence (see what I did there) of sisterhood, where Black women, old and young, light and dark, big and small, could come together and love on one another without judgement or the weight of the world on our shoulders.
Who loved on Black women like that? Nobody, not until Essence Fest.
Being there felt like a long overdue pat on the back for just being us.
When my besties and I made our plans to attend, it didn’t matter who the headliner was or what acts would be performing or how much money we had in the bank.
If we had to, we’d take out payday loans to bankroll the July trip to New Orleans. In January we’d start planning our outfits, sending photos in our group chats about color themes, hats, and breathable fabrics to beat the Louisiana heat.
We’d pack our most stylish-but-comfortable shoes to be set to dance the night away to Frankie Beverly and Maze at the Superdome.
We went so we could be together. It became one of the highlights of the year.
But recently, we had the uneasy feeling that the festival and its organizers had lost their way.
Instead of celebrating Black women, the festival was about celebrating the culture. The panels were more “universal.” It seemed less a family affair and more like a free-for-all to attract new attendees. Our Essence Fest, the event we were excited to call our own, was being marketed to the masses.
I knew the tide had shifted when the lineup included the Black Eyed Peas.
Nothing against the group, but the core crowd, Black women, wanted Frankie, not Fergie. I mean, she’s cool, but there was a collective eyeroll in Section 122 when she took the stage.
Essence took our loyalty for granted, assuming we would ignore or be blind to what was happening and come every year like we’ve always done. They acted like we needed them and they didn’t need us.
So Black women swung away.
One by one my friends stopped joining me for our annual field trip.
Every year, I felt more disconnected from the festival. The last time I attended, it felt — I am almost embarrassed to say it — like a money grab.
There was no heart, no soul, and no celebration of Black women.
This was no family affair; this was all about finances. This wasn’t for the culture, it was for the coin.
One year there were 21 of us who attended the festival, but this year, not one of my friends even mentioned it. Nobody asked who was in the lineup or put the question in the group chat about who would make the trip to the Big Easy.
Essence stopped caring about us, so we responded in kind and stopped caring about their festival.
And to add insult to injury, this year Essence Festival took sponsorship dollars from Target.
Yes, the same Target that rolled back their DEI and folded on its promises like a cheap card table during an intense game of dominoes at the family cookout.
The Target that donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund after he insulted Vice President Kamala Harris by calling her “lazy as hell,” “stupid,” “slow,” with a “low IQ.”
If the organizers co-sign with Target and Target co-signs on Trump’s racist tropes, aren’t they signing on to what Trump said about Madame Vice President?
In case the organizers hadn’t heard, we’re boycotting Target right now.
And the check from Target was the final insult to the thousands of Black women who won’t be seated at Caesars Superdome this year.
We’re done with Target and those who associate with them, including Essence Fest.
In the words of Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them. The first time.”
Yes, sister.
It was Alexander Hamilton, not Lin Manuel-Miranda, who said, ”Those who stand for nothing, will fall for anything.”
Essence Fest fell for Target and their attendance fell right along with it.
Sheletta Brundidge is an Emmy award winning comedian and radio host based in the Twin Cities
Have you considered the possibility that the festival wasn’t sustainably profitable when pandering only to black women? For all the talk of money grabbing, you provide zero context or evidence.