Essence Festival of Culture Tickets

Overpriced compared to previous years

As an Essence regular, I thought the event was on par with previous years with one exception. The prices for the seats were extremely overpriced partially due to the spacing in the Super Lounges which were always at or above capacity. The main stage acts were very nice, but seating was too tight. I am all about comfort when spending this kind of money on multiple nights...and there was no comfort in the super lounges or the overpriced tickets. Lastly...releasing tickets to "print at home" 48 hours before the event is extremely bush league. Most people are traveling and trying to find a printer (even at sold out hotels) is very inconvenient.

Saturday’s show was on FIRE!!!! Baby (in my Nola voice) can’t wait for next year!!

All the performances were incredible!!!

My sister and I went for our sister trip, we do every year. We were able to witness a remarkable experience at the Essence Concert. Everyone will love and wanted to see came to the stage plus some. Just so many unforgettable moments.

Essence was amazing

This is my 3rd Essence and was amazing an experience

Mary J. Blige was awesome!!!

Loved every moment of the concert. Xscape started it off with all the classic hits. Then Queen is just legendary and brought all the artist we love with her. It was my first time seeing Mary live and she didn't disappoint with vocals or stage presence. I love Mary!! Great job Essence Fest, keep it coming.

A night to remember!!

Exceptional concert... I loved it. I danced all night

Essence 2018...LOVED IT

First experience at the Essence Music Festival. Already planning to attend again. Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Mary J. Blige, Roots...all performances were absolutely amazing.

Ticketing process was atrocious!

The concerts themselves were good however the new process to get ticket was horrible. I've attended essence fest 5 times prior to this. This is the 1st year where I wasn't given an option to have the tickets mailed to me. Instead I had to print at home or do will call. I chose the option to print at home and the tickets were not made available far enough in advance to print. By the time the print at home option became available I was already enroute to new Orleans. It was simply enough to switch to the will call option on the tm website so that's what I did. On Friday when I got to the will call line there was no clear indication which windows were for will call and which line was for ticket purchase. Also there was no clear demarcation for where customers enter and exit the lines. After waiting in line for almost 2 hours I reached a point where I could see the window and realized that I was on the line to purchase tickets. As neared the window the railings became visible and that's when a line of customers realized we were in the space where customers exit after receiving their tickets. I guess customers had been complaining so much that an officer was finally sent out to do crowd control. He instructed us that we were in the wrong spot and would need to get off the line go to the back of the line and get in the right line. After 2 hours of waiting that was unacceptable! Luckily the patrons worked out a suitable system and I was able to get my tickets. I was so upset because after 2 hours on will call i missed my favorite artist Miguel! And I only saw not even saw I heard the close of 1 act and I saw the Roots! I don't know the reason for the changes but the tickets for essence fest more than tripled since years prior and it was the worst experience. Needless to say i will not be back! And i will not be doing business with ticketmaster either. They add all of these fees to the purchase then dont make tickets available to be mailed or printed at home within a reasonable time frame. When people are travelling to an event they are not waiting until the day of or the day before to print tickets. This was an EPIC FAIL on on both Essence and Ticketmaster!

Rockin’ n Rollin’ Solo at 64

A well deserved “Special” trip for MYSELF! I enjoyed myself with a lot of young Sisters! Oh Concerts!!! Amazing! Front n Center . Heck I worked hard.... I deserved it . Almost lost my mind when my girls hit that stage.... Queen Latifah , Missy Elliot, my girl my world MC LITE, oh y’all n YO YO! They were my girls from back in the day so I was all good . But wait now , come on.. flipped my wig on my Girl Mary J Blige, Amazing! Then Gil n Erica OMG! Topping it off with my lil’ Midwest Gary girl.... that JANET JACKSON. OMG. Got to run into a couple of Celebs , I MUST SAY that Tamala Mann was the Sweetest most sincere and engaging Celeb I’ve ever Met! Oh soooo precious n Sweet y’all . In fact her entire family was . Ok. See you in 2019! Peace

Organized Choas

We had Will call tickets and there was 1 Will Call line for the those who were not sitting on the ground floor. That line never moved, really so, me and my spouse got in the other lines that said Will Call and Ticket Sales which were the remaining lines. Our concert was sold out so, needless to say they were selling tickets while not expediting the Will Call. We stood in line for 1 hour and missed 2 acts. When I got in I ask who made the decision to have 1 Will Call Line. The service said, Ticket Master and the organizer of the Essence Festival. The worst was the sound system was awful and it wasn't fixed until the last hour of the 5 hour show. This was AWFUL.!!!!!!!!!!