Surprise: A New Orleans Insider Reveals What the First ESSENCE Festival Was Really Like – Essence

Beverly Stanton McKenna is a force. The Tennessee State University graduate is publisher and executive editor of The New Orleans Tribune and co-founder (along with her husband, Dwight McKenna, M.D.) of the impactful McKenna Museums. She’s also a real estate investor, philanthropist and longtime advocate for small and Black owned businesses and Black creatives in the New Orleans community.

Here, the wife, mother and trailblazer opens up about the climate in the city of New Orleans leading up to the very first Festival, how she helped fight for the “Party with a Purpose” and why the incomparable three-day event is now a NOLA institution with no end in sight!

“I was on the local committee organized by my good friend, then-New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial to welcome the ESSENCE Festival in 1995. We were excited because, in our community, we knew that this event was destined to be spectacular. First, it was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of ESSENCE magazine, a publication that means so much to Black women and the Black community. Second, it was especially fitting that this celebration of Blackness was going to take place in New Orleans. Many of the things that make this place so unique have been shaped by African practices and traditions – cultural retentions preserved, shared and passed down for generations. So, for us, even though it was supposed to be a one-time event, there was a buzz around that 1995 festival. It was as much about Black New Orleans getting a chance to shine as it was about celebrating ESSENCE.

Unfortunately, I also remember that there were naysayers from outside of our community. There were people that did not want to see it happen. There were those who thought it would be trouble and that Black consumers would not spend money. Some folk may not want to talk about that in 2024, but that sentiment was real. So even as we were planning to welcome this magnificent celebration, we sometimes found ourselves having to defend it. There were businesses that actually shuttered their doors for ‘vacation’ during that first festival and a few that have continued for many years down to today.  

Of course, we did not let that stop us and neither did Essence. Not only was the first Festival a success, ESSENCE Festival kept coming every summer, growing with each year. Today, I believe it is bigger, better, and bolder than we could have imagined. It has grown in its depth and impact – both culturally and economically. Thirty years later, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture is a premier event that, in 2023, attracted more than half-million visitors and had an economic impact of nearly $330 million all the while remaining a true celebration of Black culture and of the global African diaspora. And it happens right here in New Orleans. So, when I look back and think of my role and that of The New Orleans Tribune in welcoming and championing the very the first ESSENCE Festival, I am proud. I am proud of ESSENCE. I am proud of New Orleans. I am proud of my community.”