Purple Reign in New Orleans

The streets haven’t been as hot with “Prince poppin’ chat” since he was booked then cancelled for the Superbowl XXXI half-time show! Social media has “caught a fire” with the announcement of Prince as headliner of the 2014 Essence Music Festival.  This marks the 20^th anniversary of the three day event and the second appearance of Prince since he shut Nawlins down at the 10th anniversary Essence Festival in 2004.  Prince’s 2004 Essence Fest performance was classic much like his opening act, Morris Day & The Time, whom Prince joined on stage in a hooded robe and roller skates.  There were no other performers that Friday night and clearly, none were needed.

Prince is reportedly earning in excess of a million dollars to grace the Mercedes Benz Superdome stage over July 4^th weekend.  In addition to the performance Essence also announced a philanthropic partnership between Prince and Essence with the Rebuilding the Dream Innovation Fund(RDIF)(www.innovationfund.rebuildthedream.com) for 2014 festival.  While the details of this community initiative have not yet been fully disclosed, Essence reps say it will be led by the RDIF with the goal to encourage young people to harness the power of media and technology and channel their creativity into computer coding (that’s interesting).

 Essence promises that the 20^th anniversary event a true showstopper.   Uncle Charlie Wilson, MJB, Mint Condition and others are rumored to on the bill, however Essence plans to reveal the full festival line-up soon.  Essence has not revealed which night Prince will headline and is encouraging potential attendees to purchase ticket packages for all three night of the festival (a decent seat will cost you about $150 per night)to ensure they are in the building.(Note: Prince is a Jehovah’s Witness, so you may expect his beliefs to have some impact on the day of  performance, but for a million dollar plus paycheck, he may reconsider)