Essence Festival Review

By SamsonitePackingJetSettingGlobeTrotter ⋅ August 11, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

I attended the Essence Festival  on the 2nd night. Musiq Soulchild (I’m not sure if he still uses the Soulchild part) opened the concert and I would comment on it, but we missed it…I’m sure he was all that!  When we arrived LL Cool J was taking his shirt off and well, you can’t hate that. Some lucky lady got to come up on the stage and get a hug and she did not want to let go! Two other ladies ended up in a tug of war over that missing shirt that he threw into the crowd damn near causing a riot!
The Superlounges had many different performers throughout the night, but let me tell you, Ledisi greatly represented her home town. I may have been the only person in her crwod that did not know all the words. We couldn’t stay with her too long because there is no seating in the superlounges and we got tired of trying to look over tall people and through the cracks.

The best way to enjoy Essence Festival is definitely from the floor where you can actually see the people performing without watching the monitor.  Jill Scott took the stage and performed a shortened version of the full concert that she currently gives when out on tour. If you’ve never seen her perform you might seriously want to check her out when she comes to your city. Although we coudn’t figure out which drummer she’s engaged too….they were both cute so I guess it doesn’t really matter…not that our opinion mattered anyway.

Ms. Patti Labelle closed out the show in her short yellow dress and 6 inch heels, that’s one bad woman. She is 64 years old, newly divorced, menopausal, and says exactly what she feels. Go head Ms. Patti! Chrisette Michelle, Ruby Amafu, Irma Thomas, Ledisi, Angie Stone, and the original Labelles did a tribute to her in the middle of the show where each woman sang one her of hits beside her. We left Patti on the stage at 1:46 a.m. singing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’.

Next stop, Harrah’s Casino - Voodoo Club.  In my original post I said that the Voodoo Club was free. I was oh so wrong. Sorry. They were “busting heads”. $30. So just like most people we hung around in the free part of the casino and ‘people watched’. Around 4:30 a.m. when I couldn’t take it any more, we left, and when we left the place was still packed, there was still traffic, and roads were still blocked. That is one city that really does not sleep.

Ishanda, Ebonee, and Tavana enjoying the Essence Festival Afterparty at Harrah's Casino

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