Richelieu Dennis, Essence respond to criticism surrounding 2025 Essence Festival of Culture

Criticism of Essence’s annual culture festival  in New Orleans reached a fever pitch once the event wrapped; Essence and its owner have responded. 

One of the biggest events in Black America is the annual Essence Festival of Culture, typically held in New Orleans over the July 4th weekend. Essence Fest, as it’s usually called, typically brings out all of the aunties in matching shirts and rhinestones, influencers, vendors, artists and entertainers for a long weekend of panels, performances, Black enterprise and culture. Any event known to bring out tens of thousands of people is prone to have some issues somewhere, but this year, the criticism of the production of the festival seemed louder than ever with participants and those on social media claiming that the production, vibes and experience didn’t match the expectation set by year’s past. 

Typically, when a brand gets hit with bad press, they provide a press release that speaks around the issue without acknowledging what went wrong, focusing on what went right and hoping the people will forget and pull up the next time. Essence, though, this year decided to take a different approach. It started when Lauryn Hill had production issues, delaying her show by hours. Media outlets reported that Hill performed to a few hundred people deep into the night and chalked it up to Hill’s reported issues with punctuality and time. Essence, however, jumped in front of that narrative and took accountability for the production issues, making sure that it was clear that Hill wasn’t the problem, a notable step towards accountability from such a large brand, which Hill appreciated. 

Essence’s accountability tour has continued. CEO and Executive Chairman of Sundial Brands—which owns Essence—Richelieu Dennis recently pulled up to The Breakfast Club and sat down with the host to discuss the production issues that caused such a backlash and uproar, which also included the inclusion of Target as sponsor for the event in the midst of a community-wide boycott of the retailer. In response to the production issues and complaints, Dennis was very graceful and intentional with his words.

“At the end of the day, it’s not any of our partner’s fault, it’s our fault, because we engaged them, and it’s our job to make sure that everything is delivered properly. I’m not gonna sit here and say that it’s the Solomon Group’s fault, it’s this group’s fault, it’s that group’s fault,” he started.

So [Essence is] gonna take the hit, we will deal with our internal partners, our internal partners will step up. And if they don’t step up to the plate, then they will be gone, but it will not be because they made a mistake here. It will be because they haven’t been able to learn from those mistakes.”

Additionally, on their Instagram page, Essence dropped a statement and what looked to be a PR slide presentation titled, “Let’s Talk Essence Festival of Culture: What we built, what we heard and where we go from here.” 

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The post captions reads—in part and truncated for brevity: “Here’s what we heard loud and clear: “We love ESSENCE Festival, and we want it to be better.”

And so, we will be. Better.

We recognize that business decisions and shifts in policy don’t always reflect our community’s values. When that happens, we engage in the real conversations needed to align on what matters most: The People. 

We are working closely with partners to ensure our moral compass remains steady and we continue to serve the communities who’ve entrusted us with their care.

The Superdome. Yes, we heard you loud and clear. (Because clearly, you couldn’t hear us.)

The production—we’re on it.

The schedule—it’ll be released earlier, with a tighter, clearer run of show.”

Their statement attempted to address the biggest criticisms and concerns they heard over the weekend and acknowledge places they could have stepped up. 

Will those goals come to fruition in a manner that leads to a better overall experience for those who took issue with the festival in 2025? That remains to be seen, but Essence is letting festival goers know they heard them and that’s a start that hopefully the community can get on board with.